


Jurassic Island

by siarc_a_botel



Category: Avengers, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Dinosaurs, Alternate Universe Jurassic World, Blood and Injury, Dinosaur researcher Steve, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Gen, Hurt Steve Rogers, Love Confessions, M/M, Minor Character Death, Protective Tony Stark, Protective Wade, Schmidt being evil, Sick Steve Rogers, Steve Needs a Hug, Steve and Tony are the same height, Steve and Tony past boyfriends, Swearing, Tony is Aunt May's brother, Tony is an asshole, Tony is much older than Steve, Wade Being Wade, Workaholic Tony, Young Steve, avengers alternate universe, small appearance by Bucky and Sam, young loki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2018-12-06 08:06:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11596470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siarc_a_botel/pseuds/siarc_a_botel
Summary: On an island located off Costa Rica, Howard Stark and a group of genetic scientists have accomplished the impossible, a wildlife park full of cloned dinosaurs. After more than 20 years of operation and the park being taken over by Howard's son Tony, visitor rates suddenly decline, thus a new species of dinosaur is create as a new attraction. After building the creature's cage, Jurassic World's dinosaur researcher and velociraptor trainer (and Stark's ex-boyfriend) Steve Rogers, is asked to take a look at the new beast and test the cage. When the vicious dinosaur escapes, Rogers and Stark, along with their team must do all they can to save the 23,000 people from the prehistoric threat.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi nerds!
> 
> Finally posting my first Stony fic! Here's a few pointers before you begin reading!
> 
> \- I've based Spidey on Andrew Garfield's version since he's my favourite Spiderman (and you know, he liplocked with Ryan Reynolds so it's only fair that I put them together..)  
> \- Sometimes characters will be OOC to fit the story!  
> \- I've followed the story of Jurassic World but taken bits out and added my own in etc.  
> \- Characters will die... many characters will die...   
> \- If any of the English is wrong gimme a shout as my Welsh is so much better than my English and I'll take any help I can with it :)  
> \- I will try to update as much as I can! Sorry in advance if I take a while!!
> 
> Thanks and enjoy!

“BOYS! LET’S GO!”

A grey haired woman named Aunt May yelled from the front door of a two storey house, fiddling through her bottomless handbag to try and find her car keys. Meanwhile, as she stepped down onto her drive, in the front bedroom of the house said boys were busy scattering about the room in a mad dash. More like: one was scattering whilst the other decided on what to wear.

“WADE!” Peter Parker shouted across the room at his boyfriend, zipping his backpack shut with extreme difficulty. “Just choose which damn jacket you want and let’s go!”

“Hmm,” Wade held out two jackets, one red and one green. “I don’t know, Shnookums. Which one matches my eyes best?” he said, holding them both to his face.

Peter rolled his eyes, swinging his bag onto his shoulder. “Red, okay? Just take the red!”

Wade threw the green jacket onto the floor. “Why, Peter, you have such good taste.”

Peter snorted, yanking Wade’s jacket up off the ground and tossing it onto his bed. “It’s a miracle my Aunt May lets you sleep over.”

“It’s because I make excellent pancakes.”

“Come on!” Peter sighed, grabbing a hold of Wade’s shirt and pulling him through the door. “We’re going to be late!”

“BOYS!”

As if on cue Aunt May’s voice bellowed from downstairs. Peter and Wade rushed down the stairs and through the front door, finding a very peeved Aunt May standing beside her car waiting. Peter sent her a big smile as he locked the front door behind him, noticing how Wade began whistling as he avoided all eye contact with her, practically tip toeing to the other side of the vehicle.

“Front seat, Wilson.” She said calmly as she got into the driver’s seat.

“Aw but Aunty May May!” he whined.

“Front seat.” She repeated as Peter sent Wade an apologetic smile whilst getting into the back of the car. “I don’t want you groping my nephew.”

Wade put a hand to his heart and fake gasped as he plonked himself next to her, as Peter let out a groan in embarrassment. “Why, Mrs May, I would never inappropriately touch your barely legal blood relative!”

“I’m eighteen, asshole!” Peter punched him on the shoulder.

“Language, Peter.” Aunt May said as she drove off. “And yes you would, Wade. I may be old but I’m not blind.”

“Are you sure?” Wade shrieked as Aunt May avoided a cone at the side of the road. “Because you’re a terrible driver.”

That earned him a smack to the back of the head.

An hour later the three entered JFK international airport, Peter and Wade sending off their small, shared suitcase at the desk, before making their way to their gate. It wouldn’t take long for their flight to board as Wade had decided he needed to pee halfway through their car journey, which took him a lot longer than normal, and then he’d stopped for a bagel which took up more time, making them closer and closer to being late for their flight.

The couple stopped by the security line and turned to Aunt May, who started tearing up a little as she looked up at her nephew. Peter sighed, groaning at her sudden emotional breakout.

“Aunt May,” he said, giving her a hug. “We’re going for four days!”

“I know, I know.” She sniffed, grabbing a hold of his arms to take a good look at him. “But I’m going to miss you, the house will be so quiet without you.”

Peter snorted. “It’s only loud when Wade stays over.”

“Hey,” Wade grinned cheekily. “Aunty May May’s snoring is way louder than mine.”

Aunt May rolled her eyes, leaning in for a quick hug with Wade. “You’d better look after him, or I’ll slice your balls off.”

Wade visibly flinched. Peter chuckled to himself as he pulled out their flight tickets from his pocket, giving Aunt May one last smile. “Well, we’d better go, their announcing our flight.”

“Okay, honey.” She smiled, patting them both on the arm. “Now don’t forget to tell Tony to ring me when you’re there.”

“I know,” Peter said. “And don’t forget to tell Uncle Tony that he needs to ring you at least twice a day to let you know how we’re doing.”

“Exactly,” Aunt May nodded, beginning to push the two towards the gate. “Now go.”

The two sent her a small wave as they made their way to the security check, tickets in hand and backpacks ready to put through the machine. Peter turned once more to send his Aunt another wave, her hand waving back frantically.

“And don’t forget,” She had to shout a little. “If something chases after you, you run!”

Peter laughed. If only their trip to Jurassic Island would be that exciting.


	2. Welcome to Jurassic Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Wade spend the day exploring Jurassic Island with a not so welcoming tour guide. Meanwhile, the boss of the park, Tony Stark, is having some dinosaur issues.

 

 

The tedious eight hour flight to Costa Rica felt more like twenty hours to Peter. As their plane landed safely on the tarmac he was more than happy to disembark and get on the mini bus, where they’d then be driven to the boat that would take them to the island. He’d always hated flying because of the constant humming from the engines which drove him insane, and the hours of sitting on his butt without stretching his legs or arms, and on this flight Wade and himself had been stuck behind a screaming baby who had an infuriating way of knowing when Peter wanted to fall asleep.

Wade had threatened under his breath to grab the baby and toss it into the overhead locker, which resulted in a painful jab to his ribs from Peter. Well, if there was one good thing about flying it was the constant entertainment he got from sitting next to his boyfriend.

Once their bus had come to a stop at the docks, Wade grabbed their bags and practically ran excitedly onto the boat, Peter passing the other passengers with a mortified look on his face. It was bad enough Wade was wearing a kid’s hat with a green dinosaur on the front. Peter’s embarrassment soon died away when the boat took off and they were on their way to the island, standing at the front of the vessel looking out into the wide, open sea. Dolphins jumped up beside the boat as it sped through the water, as birds flew high above them, and in the distance a huge, green mountain grew even bigger the closer they got.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive. Wade jumped up and down like a hyperactive child beside Peter, as the younger of the two stared in wonderment at the gigantic island in front of them. A wide spread of trees covered the mountains that almost touched the sky, mist streaming like a waterfall at their peaks, a long stretch of beach laid out at their end. It was like looking at something off of a postcard, another world where only nature existed.

“Too bad there’s an ugly looking building over there.” Wade broke the daydream Peter was having as the boat came to a stop.

Peter glared at him, wishing he hadn’t pointed out the glass building between the trees. “I hate you.” Peter mumbled as the crowd began disembarking.

Once the pair got off behind the rest of the tourists, they carried their bags onto the decking where they walked along the platform and came to a stop halfway, eyes scanning the area to see if they could find Tony who said he’d be meeting them.

“I see no dude with a goatee, Petey.” Wade stated as he whipped his head back and forth.

“Me neither.” Peter sighed. “Typical, he’s either late or decided to abandon us.”

Wade gasped. “What if we get eaten?”

“I’m sure we won’t,” Peter said as he kept on walking, Wade trailing beside him. “I bet we taste gross, like coffee with too much sugar.”

“Or your Aunt May’s waffles.” Wade added with a grimace.

Peter couldn’t help but laugh, and nodded in agreement. He stopped abruptly when he noticed something in front of them, Wade too who pointed a finger in its direction. There stood a man in a green apron who seemed no older than thirty, with pitch black hair and a thin frame, looking like he’d been forced to stand there holding up the sign with Peter and Wade’s names on. Peter rolled his eyes, before yanking on Wade’s hand and leading him over to the stranger.

“You Peter Parker?” the man drawled in a thick English accent, sounding like he was bored rigid.

“Yeah,” Peter answered. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Loki, I work for your uncle,” he said with a sigh. “I’m _supposed_ to be working at the Dino café, but apparently I’m now a babysitter and tour guide thanks to my brother’s idiotic suggestion that I am apparently good with the visitors and know my way around, which is a load of utter poppycock. I despise people.”

“Right.” Peter droned, sharing a bewildered look with Wade. “So, um… what’s the plan?”

“Follow me,” Loki ushered, pushing past a few straying visitors. “We’ll be going to your rooms first.”

Turns out the glass building they’d seen earlier was where their next place of transport would be. They followed Loki onto the railway train, and took a seat halfway down the cabin a few rows in front of the man, Peter getting way too eager for his own good as the train shot off and took them closer to his first ever dinosaur encounter.

“That Loki’s funny as shit!” Wade whispered beside Peter, laughing to himself as he fiddled with his cap. “Man, I totally want to jump out of a bush and scare the guy.”

Peter grinned. “That I’d like to see.”

“I’m gonna do it, fuck it.” Wade rubbed his hands together with a cackle.

“Ten bucks says he’ll scream like a girl.” Peter held out his hand with a smirk.

Wade took it and gave it a shake. “Twenty bucks says he’ll pee pee in his girly panties.”

Peter chuckled quietly, taking a peek over at Loki to make sure he wasn’t looking. “Deal.”

Wade clapped his hands together and howled loudly. Passengers turned to look at him, Peter hid his face behind his hands whilst Wade gave them all a little wave and a big grin.

“Hi, how’s it going?” he asked the couple in front. “If you could get eaten by a dinosaur which one would it be?”

“Wade!” Peter groaned, the two getting some serious looks from the pair in front of them. “Sometimes I wonder why I take you out in public.”

“Well, I need the walks, honey bear.” Wade said, planting a sloppy kiss on Peter’s cheek. “Hey,” he began, nudging Peter on the arm. “Why didn’t your rich as fuck uncle come pick us up?”

Peter shrugged. “I told you what he was like, he’s married to his work, probably had business stuff to do.”

“But you’re his nephew.”

“He doesn’t care.” Peter said, adjusting his bag on the floor. “Last time I saw him he was more glued to his phone than he was paying any attention to me and aunt May. He even tried to bribe me with a new Ipad if I left him alone.”

Wade’s jaw dropped. “No?” he gasped, placing a hand on his heart. “What a selfish prick. Did you take the Ipad?”

Peter shook his head but laughed none the less. “Course I did.”

“That’s my boy.”

It took Peter and Wade another ten minutes before they finally got up to their room at the Jurassic Hotel, where Loki signed them in and showed them around using his uninterested, gloomy voice. The room was definitely five star if the massive television screen, free food and large balcony with fancy table and chairs were anything to go by. The bed was big enough for Wade to roll over in it six times, not to mention the shower could probably fit about eight people and the bath was more like a swimming pool.

Peter was more interested in the view from the balcony when he opened the double doors. Right in front of them stood the entire park itself, they could literally see every inch of it. From the museum centre, to the laboratories at the back, and the main street where all the cafes, shops and restaurants mounted amongst the thousands of guests and staff. Peter watched in wonder, taking it all in, goose bumps adorning his skin as the sound of a dinosaur’s roar echoed across the island.

 

 

“ _Wow, were halfway there, wooow, giving kids a scare…_ ”

“Tony?”

“ _Take my hand, we’ll make it I swear, woooow, giving kids a scare…_ ”

“Tony!”

“What?”

Tony, the son of the founder of Jurassic World turned to his friend, who also happened to be the park’s head scientist.

“Enough with the song.” He said, flipping through the pages of his clipboard, as the elevator they were in descended.

Tony snorted. “I think it fits perfectly well Bruce, I should have it debuted.”

“Please don’t.” Bruce slipped his glasses back up his nose. “You should be focusing on these sponsors that we’re about to meet.”

Tony groaned, leaning back against the glass elevator and slapping a hand to his forehead. “But I hate it, all of it, can’t we just sponsor ourselves?”

“No Tony, that’s not how things work.”

Tony pouted. “What makes you think they’ll take the bait anyway?”

“I’m sure they will,” Bruce said confidently. “Creating a new dinosaur will get them to listen and be interested in the park enough to sponsor us, they’ll be begging to be a part of this.”

“Sure,” Tony hummed, checking his phone for any new emails from his company. “And you think kids don’t like the good ole t-rex anymore?”

“Dinosaurs are like zoo animals these days,” Bruce said, snatching Tony’s phone out of his hand and putting it in his pocket. Tony glared. “We need something new, something bigger that will bring in the crowds.”

“I’d say a T-rex is pretty big, wouldn’t you?”

Bruce sighed. “Just trust me, Tony. Creating this dinosaur will bring this park to a whole other level.”

“Father would be so proud.” Tony said sarcastically.

Bruce turned to him with a frown. “He would be proud of you, you know? He’d be happy with everything you’ve done for this place.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Tony rolled his eyes. “Most kids get left with a sum of money when their asshole fathers hit the bucket, and what do I get? A tech company and a bunch of dinosaurs.”

“You love Stark Industries.” Bruce said with a knowing smile.

“I _know_ technology,” Tony said as a matter of fact. “I know _nothing_ about dinosaurs.”

Bruce shrugged. “You know enough about business to have kept this place going for twenty years.”

“Don’t know why I didn’t just sell this place.” Tony sighed, thinking back to the time his father had told him he’d left the entire park in his will to Tony. It wasn’t easy running two businesses at the same time, even though he had a lot of help from both ends. “Maybe I could sell some dinosaurs to Manhattan Zoo, they’d love a Spinosaurus as a main attraction.”

Bruce’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. “I’m surprised you even know what that is.”

“I don’t,” Tony said with a grin. “I read it off your clipboard.”

Bruce rolled his eyes, tucking said clipboard under his arm. “Anyway, do you remember what you have to tell them?”

“Oh, about how this company is dedicated to pleasing the customers? How we have expert geneticists working daily to find new species to create a bigger and better park? How that science guy Wong steals all the tea from the cupboard and constantly plays Beyonce songs whilst working?”

“Tony.” Bruce deadpanned.

The engineer laughed. “Lighten up Bruce, I’ve been spewing bullshit for years, it’ll be fine.”

Bruce sighed, adjusting his white jacket. “Right, yeah, you’re right.” He said nervously, he was a wreck and Tony wanted to pat the poor guy on his head and send him to bed. “Okay, let’s just get out there and do this.”

Tony nodded and hid a smile, as he heard his phone vibrate he was more focused on figuring out a way to get it out of his friend’s pocket than the so called sponsors waiting for them. He had no choice but to stand up straight when Bruce hit him on the arm to get his attention. The engineer straightened his tie and flattened his hair, turning to Bruce with a grin, extending his arms out so he could get a good look at him. Bruce just rolled his eyes, facing forward quickly as the elevator pinged and the doors opened.

The pair were met by four others, standing in suits and ties with briefcases held tight in their hands. Bruce smiled politely. “Welcome to Jurassic Island.”

 

 

Peter and Wade wouldn’t admit it out loud to anyone, but they were having the time of their lives. Since leaving their hotel room, Loki tottering behind them like an old dog, the two had spent the last three hours running around the place like a couple of school children. The first dinosaurs they’d seen were the Gallimimus, about five of the carnivorous creatures had a nice, green patch all to themselves, they’d watched them for ages as the dinosaurs jumped over their rocks and picked at the trees for grub.

Peter had dragged Wade off to the baby dinosaurs straight after, where they got to pet a one month old triceratops and see some eggs hatch through the laboratory’s windows. They had a go on some of the rides which were way too few, watched a Tyrannosaurus Rex eat a goat (which had Wade giggling at the thought of the creature giving out a loud belch), and after some food of their own at the Dino Café they reached the Mosasaurus show. Safe to say it was Wade’s favourite part of the day by far.

The eighteen metre sea dwelling monster was held in a gigantic tank where it hid away in the murky water. As the two sat down alongside Loki (who by this point wanted to cry of boredom) on one of the hundreds of rows of seat in front of the tank, they had no idea what to expect. When a huge great white shark was flown above them on a crate and stopped above the still water, it had the whole audience gasping and clapping in astonishment. Wade had almost weed himself as the Mosasaurus leapt out of the water with a loud wail and snatched the shark in its jaws, landing back into its tank with a thunderous splash that had the entire audience drenched from head to toes.

Wade was on his feet clapping like a maniac as Peter laughed beside him. It wasn’t until the crowd started dispersing and heading for the exit that they noticed Loki, who jumped out of his seat with an oversized, green umbrella clutched in his hand.

One o’clock came around and the couple found themselves being led to the Innovation Centre, the enormous, brown building sitting at the end of the main street. Peter’s eyes lit up when they pushed open the wooden doors. Inside there were walking holograms of different dinosaurs, touch screen guides and games, interactive videos and even a ride that took you past the labs and showed 3D videos on how the dinosaurs were made. It was like being four again and getting his first ever science book.

“Wow!” Wade stared up at the gigantic hologram of a longneck. “I wonder how long it would take to knit him a scarf.”

Peter chuckled as they made their way to the middle of the room, stopping to look at the touch screen information board. “Look, they’ve got a lab tour every four hours!”

“Nerd.” Wade poked him in the side.

Peter stuck his tongue out, turning to Loki who’d gotten his nose stuck in his phone again. “Loki?” the man looked up unamused. “Any chance we could come back later for the lab tour?”

“Whatever.” Loki murmured, going straight back to his phone.

Wade shuffled closer to Peter. “Do you think maybe he’s a robot from the future?”

“I don’t know,” Peter said quietly. “Tip water on him and find out.”

Wade laughed loudly, gaining Loki’s attention. The two grinned at him innocently, which must have worked as he went back to typing away on his device.

“ _Peter?_ ”

The teenager stopped laughing when he heard his name being called, looking around in confusion he soon saw the source of the voice. Strutting down a flight of steps to their right was his uncle Tony, wearing his usual suit and tie with his phone clutched in his hand as always. Peter sent him a wave as the engineer walked towards them.

“Jesus,” Tony said with a grin as he stopped in front of his nephew. “You’ve grown, how old are you now? Thirteen? Fourteen?”

“I’m eighteen, Uncle Tony.” Peter said with a roll of his eyes.

Tony chortled, giving him a stiff hug. “Ah, not far off.” He said as he noticed Wade swaying back and forth beside Peter. He arched an eyebrow.

“You must be Wade?”

“Yep!” Wade grinned brightly. “The one and only.”

“Nice hat.” Tony said, sounding highly sarcastic.

Wade gave his dinosaur hat a good tap. “Why thank you, Starky.”

Tony frowned. “It’s Mr. Stark to you.” He said, noticing how Peter looked way too amused for his own good at the conversation. “And uh, how old are you exactly Wade?”

Wade looked puzzled at the question but answered anyway. “Twenty seven.”

Tony hummed, looking over at Peter who knew exactly what he was about to do. “Bit old for you isn’t he Peter?”

Peter snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “One, you’re starting to sound like Aunt May,” Tony cringed. “And two, didn’t you date that dinosaur guy called Steve like not so long ago who was, what did Aunt May say again? Oh yeah, twenty years younger than you? Wasn’t he a bit young for you?”

Tony stood there mouth agape, wishing he had a good comeback but nothing seemed to be coming to mind. Meanwhile Wade was desperately trying not to laugh in Tony’s face.

“Touché.” Tony said with a cough to hide his awkwardness. “Anyway, I uh… see you’ve met Loki.”

The waiter looked up at the sound of his name, seeing that it was only Stark he went straight back to his phone. It was Tony’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Not much of a talker.” Wade whispered. “We think he might be a robot.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Tony said, pulling up his phone. “Right, so, I’ve just got an email off Pepper about some Skype meetings I have with Stark Industries in a few hours and I’ve got to go talk dinosaurs with some people, I will make sure Loki shows you the full experience of this place.

“Wait,” Peter began, as Tony started clicking away on his mobile. “You’re not coming with us?”

Tony looked up. “Oh, no. Sorry, I’ve got a lot on Pete, I’ll have to catch up with you later on if that’s alright?”

Peter sighed. “Yeah, fine. Not that I’m surprised or anything.”

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that.” Tony said as he put his phone back in his pocket. “We’ll have fun later, right? Say six o’clock?” he tapped a finger to his lips. “No wait, I’ve got another Skype thing, say eight? When’s your bed time?”

“Eight’s fine.” Peter deadpanned.

And that was that. With a quick goodbye and a see you later Tony was back up the steps, making his way into the technology department.

“Well,” Wade hummed. “Your uncle seems like a fun guy, Petey.”

Peter looked at him liked he’d grown two heads.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The control room was located near the other end of the structure, right on the top floor, away from the hustle and bustle of the park. Tony always liked going there to get away from all the people on the outside, it was a lot quieter and the employees there were always either sitting noiselessly at their stations or communicating calmly through radios and intercoms.

When he turned up to that part of building he immediately felt calmer, like he’d completely left the world behind. As he stepped through the double doors into the control room he let out a sigh, taking in the brightly lit panels, bright computer screens, and the soft hum of the electrics. He definitely preferred this part of the park to the others, it was a bonus that nothing in here would eat them too.

“Boss Tony!”

Tony almost jumped at the booming voice of one of the workers at the back row, he gazed over at him as the man stretched his arms into the air and grinned from ear to ear. Tony snorted, standing beside the long haired guy.

“Thor, your energy is sky high every time I see you.” Tony said, eyes scanning the security feeds. “What do you take, and where can I find some?”

Thor laughed joyfully. “Why, it is Energy Bolt.” He said in his English accent, holding up a can. “It’s delicious!”

“Of course it is.” Tony snorted.

“How goes my brother?” Thor asked, taking a loud sip of his energy drink.

“Oh, great.” Tony wanted to laugh, thinking of the look on Loki’s face when he’d asked him to show his nephew and Wade around. “Really enjoying himself, can’t stop smiling.”

Thor roared with delight. “Wonderful! I am glad he has found some fun.”

“Yeah, he’s found fun alright.” Tony mumbled under his breath.

For the next half hour Tony spent his time relaxing, kind of, in the control room. He took a seat at the back next to Thor and went over the security checks that were in place, checked that the technology was up to speed, and discussed the days mishaps with his security officer Natasha, apparently two dinosaurs had escaped their compounds when nobody was looking but thankfully they had no interest in eating meat.

The engineer would have loved to spend the rest of his day there but knew that behind the closed doors he had a lot to deal with. Emails from his business, Stark Industries, were constantly flowing in, and the CEO wouldn’t stop calling him about the new phone that they were about to release. Tony was halfway through a call discussing the phone’s glitches when a large, bulky man came stammering through the room’s main doors.

Tony slumped in his chair and looked at his watch. “Shit,” he mumbled. “Look Pep, I’ll have to call you back.” He said down the phone and shoved it in his pocket.

“Stark,” the man called in his deep voice. “Your ride’s waiting.”

Tony gave a quick wave to Thor and the rest as he jumped out of his seat, adjusting his tie as he went. “Well hello to you too, Luke.” He said as the man glared. “You’re looking cheerful today.”

“You were meant to meet me on the helipad, we’re late for our meeting.” He said as he turned and stormed through the doors.

“What can I say, time got me.” Tony said as he tried to catch up with Luke, he could have sworn he was jogging because he was going way too fast. “Hey, when you said helipad does that mean we’re taking the helicopter?”

Luke didn’t answer him, but seconds later he found out for himself when the hulking man slammed the metal doors open to the roof and there stood the companies helicopter, its engine roaring into life as they stepped inside. Tony climbed in not so gracefully and tugged on the headphones, watching in disbelief as Luke got into the driver’s seat next to the usual helicopter driver, Danny.

“So, Danny?” Tony began, as the curly haired blonde turned and greeted him with a big grin. “Not driving this thing today?” he asked nervously.

“Nope!” he said through the headsets in his usual merry voice. “I’ve taught Cage here long enough, thought I’d give him his final lesson today.”

Tony gulped, watching as Luke flicked some switches and turned some dials. He wanted to jump out and shout mercy but thought better of it as he’d rather not get beaten up by the seven foot, virtually bulletproof constructor. It’s not that he didn’t trust Luke to drive the thing, but from past experiences he wasn’t exactly thrilled about bringing up that afternoons dinner.

“Hold on tight, Mr. Stark!” Danny shouted enthusiastically.

Tony did just that as the helicopter left the ground. It wasn’t even seconds into the air before it swayed way too fast to the side and clipped the edge of the building, Tony clung to anything that he could find, and could have sworn he felt his heart stop for a second. Danny cheered like it was a rollercoaster ride as Luke laughed animatedly beside him. Meanwhile Tony held on tight to the seats and counted in his head, telling himself that next time he’ll just take that beating from Luke Cage.

Minutes later Tony was staggering out of the helicopter and fell onto his knees on the nearest patch of grass, throwing up his food. “Fuck.” He groaned, accepting a bottle of water from Danny who came out of nowhere. “Thanks, Rand.”

“Guess we need to work on his piloting skills a little, huh?” Danny said.

“No, you think?” Tony grunted, taking a long swig of the water.

Luke didn’t even seem affected at all, he’d hopped out of the craft with a satisfied grin on his face and stuck his thumb up in Tony’s direction before he sauntered into the dinosaur’s new enclosure. Tony glared at the man’s retreating back, wanting to throw the water bottle in his direction. He thought better of it when Danny helped him up and told him he’d better get inside before Luke’s patience wears off.

Taking long strides Tony followed the builder into the entrance of the dinosaur’s exhibit, being careful not to touch anything besides the doors as it wasn’t even finished yet. Walking through a small hallway filled with information on the walls about the Jurassic creature, Tony turned a corner and found Luke talking to a builder in a hard hat, right next to a thick, secure screen of glass that stretched from one side of the room to the other.

Luke finished up with the industrialist as Tony stepped in front of the glass, giving it a small knock. “What do you think?” Luke asked, looking out through the glass.

Behind the protective display was a sea of trees, bushes and plants all strewn around the earthy ground, like a jungle fit for such a large monster. The trees were tall and sprouting leaves from top to bottom, they made it perfect for the dinosaur to hide behind and not be seen so easily. Tony wondered if the thing was watching them at that very instant.

“It’s uh… creepy.” Tony said honestly, seeing a tree move.

“Creepy?” Luke grinned. “You wait until you see the dinosaur.”

Tony looked at Luke as he smirked and all of a sudden felt chills creep up his spine. “Where is it?”

“Right there.”

Tony whipped his head around so fast he felt it click. Thankfully he wasn’t met with a ginormous, scary looking lizard with sharp teeth and red eyes, but what he saw was just as bad. There, amongst the trees, he could just about see two big, black eyes staring right at him. Tony froze as the dinosaur blinked, its eyes not leaving him as it stood there stock still, probably imagining how tasty he’d look on a platter with French dressing and a salad.

“Do you think she’ll scare the children?” Luke asked beside him.

Tony gulped as the dinosaur retreated back into the trees, footsteps echoing as they hit the ground. “She scares _me_ , let alone the kids.”

Luke smiled. “I wanted to ask you about the enclosure.” He said, catching Tony’s attention who was close to running as far away as possible. “We need to have it checked, we’re not finished yet but almost there.”

“Checked for what?” Tony frowned, he knew the plans had been tested over a few times since they’d started building it, everything had seemed fine from the get go.

“This animal is strong, pretty powerful,” Luke said, looking out at the dome. “I made sure we used the thickest steel and strongest cement we could to build it, not to mention the toughest glass imaginable, but I’m still not sure it’ll stop her.”

“Why not?”

Luke held up his hand and pointed to the other end of the room. Tony hadn’t noticed it before, but right in the top corner of the glass was a crack, a large slash that looked like something had hit it pretty hard. Tony’s eyes widened. Bruce definitely hadn’t mentioned that.

“She did that?” he asked.

Luke nodded. “The other day one of the builder’s was standing there sealing the glass, she came out of nowhere and head butted it. I think if she’d hit it twice there’d be no glass left.”

“Shit.” Tony said under his breath. “How dangerous is this thing?” he said, he hadn’t realised just how insane this idea had been, only now learning some facts about the creature. Maybe he should have paid more attention to Bruce when he’d gone over the plan.

“Pretty damn dangerous.” Luke said with confidence. “I’m not a dinosaur expert but, she ate her own sibling so, I’d say she’s worse than a T-Rex.”

“She ate her own sibling?” Tony almost yelled in disbelief.

“Yeah, there used to be two.”

Bruce never told him that either. Tony suddenly had the urge to get on a plane back to   
New York and never come back. “So, you need the cage to be checked encase she tries to escape again?”

Luke nodded. “I don’t know much about dinosaurs, Stark. I need someone who knows this things behaviour, who will know just what it’ll take to keep her inside, maybe how to keep her calm or enjoy her enclosure enough to not want to get out.”

Tony sighed. He was starting to feel a headache coming on.

“Luckily for you, I know just the guy.”


	3. The Dinosaur Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy! :)

The Dinosaur Man

If there was anything to say about Steven Grant Rogers, it was that he was the bravest man on Jurassic island. Not only did he become the parks very own dinosaur researcher and behaviour specialist, he also became the trainer and caretaker of four very real, and very dangerous velociraptors.

Ever since he was a kid Steve’s only wish was to work at Jurassic Island. Being the biggest fan of dinosaurs he’d begged his mother to take him to the park just once, and that had him determined to do anything to make his wish come true. When his mother had passed away she’d left him enough money to get into university, meaning he could study dinosaurs and learn all about their behaviour and the world they lived in. Four years of studying hard and passing all his exams with flying colours had paid off as he’d been snatched up by Jurassic Island, who wanted him to start as soon as he’d left his school.

Aged twenty two and fresh out of university, Steve had his dream job and loved every second of it. Two years into it and he was still running around with the dinosaurs.

“Dugan!”

Steve shouted sternly. He was stood on a metal bridge above an enclosure, holding out a dead rat in his hand as he looked down at his four Raptors who stood waiting, eyes wide and teeth showing.

“Dugan, back up!” Steve shouted again, noticing the biggest Raptor creeping forward. “Stay right where you are.”

Dugan stood still, his claws clicking together in anticipation, waiting for his food to drop. Steve gave a loud whistle and the four dinosaurs looked up with their jaws wide open, the blonde threw the rat right into Dugan’s mouth and the creature bit down hard with an unsettling crunch.

“Monty, Frenchie, Gabe!” Steve called to each Raptor as he threw them all a rat in turn, every single one gobbling down the treat like it was their last. “Good boys.” Steve smiled, watching as the four animals gazed up at him as they finished.

“Well done,” Steve said as he held up two hands, the creatures not moving an inch at his command. “Hold… that’s it.”

With another whistle and a wave of his hands the Raptors all gave out a screech and took off into the trees, leaving scratch marks in the dirt as they went. Steve sighed in relief. The other employees watching through the steel gates gave him a clap and some cheers as Steve picked up his now empty bucket and made his way back over the bridge, descending some steps and checking the gate as he closed it behind him.

“Well done, Steve!” one of the workers called Charles yelled his way.

“Thanks.” Steve grinned, hanging his bucket on a hook.

“You’re braver than most, Rogers.” Another worker named Logan patted him on the shoulder as three of them crowded around him, shaking his hand and their heads in disbelief. “Don’t think any of these men would have the balls to do what you do you crazy fucker!”

Steve chuckled, as the men nodded their heads in agreement. “I’m sure you guys could handle a few whistles and hand gestures, it’s not like I’m giving them a pat on the head, Logan.”

The group laughed. “Not yet anyway.” Said Scott.

Logan nodded. “You’ll be hand feeding them soon enough.”

“I’m not that crazy.” Steve said with a shake of his head. “Maybe I should send you in, Logan. I’m sure you could take on four small dinosaurs.”

The small crowd laughed as Logan snorted, crossing his arms over his chest, Scott nudged him in the side and played along. “He’s right, I could see you having a wrestling match with these guys.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “You’d like that wouldn’t you, Summers. Me getting mauled by Steve’s pet lizards.”

“Would be quite the entertainment, yeah.” Scott smirked.

“Now now, boys.” One of the other men spoke up. A younger looking boy around Steve’s age. “You two are like an old married couple, jeez.”

“Shut it, Remy.” Logan grumbled.

“Anyway, gentlemen,” Steve began, grabbing his motorbike keys out of his pocket. “I’d best be off home, I’ve been hanging out with my lizards for a little too lo-,”

“PIG ON THE LOOSE! GET IT BACK NOW!”

Just like that the peace was broken. Steve and his group of friends looked up and found chaos across the metal bridge that Steve had been on minutes ago, workers running across it and around the enclosure, some yelling whilst some stood there staring into the cage looking deathly pale.

Steve went straight into action, running around to the back of the cage where most of the employees were gathered. The trainer saw his close friend standing near the gate, shouting God only knew what to the others.

“Clint!”

Clint looked over at Steve who came bolting to his side. “He fell in the fucking enclosure!” the other man said angrily. “Pig got loose.”

Steve looked in at what everyone else was gazing at, and his heart stopped. There, on his back inside the enclosure was their newest recruit Bobby, and in front of him the four Raptors lined up and slowly crept towards him with hunger in their eyes. Steve knew those movements, they were preparing to attack and eat the man alive.

Without hesitation Steve shoved Clint aside and slammed his hand down on the red button that opened the thick, metal gate, and in a second he was rolling into the enclosure and running to Bobby’s side. He could hear the others yelling behind him to take cover, Clint shouting in utter shock at the man’s actions as he stood to the side, waiting to shut the gate if necessary.

As soon as Steve got to Bobby he stood in front of him like a barrier, the Raptors bending their knees and ready to pounce. “Hold!” Steve bellowed at the top of his voice, arms outstretching in front of him. “Hold it right there.”

The Raptors halted, heads bowed low and teeth bared in an inaudible growl. Steve stood his ground, watching the creatures every move as they clicked their tongues and snarled loudly.

“I see you, Monty.” Steve turned to his left, following the raptor as he took a step forward. “Stay right where you are.”

Steve held his hands higher, giving the raptors each a quick look in their eyes before he addressed Bobby. “We’re going to run in three, okay?”

“Okay.” Bobby whimpered.

“Clint?” Steve called calmly to his friend, who he knew was still standing close by. “When I get to three you shut that gate.”

“ _What_?” He heard Clint shout in surprise.

Steve slowly lowered his arms, trusting that his friend had their backs. “One, two,” the raptors growled. “THREE!”

It all happened in a split second. As soon as Steve shouted three he was pushing a shaky Bobby towards the closing gate, the raptors giving out a piercing shriek as they chased after them. Steve could feel his chest sting as they ran for their lives, hearing the dinosaurs get closer, their heavy feet falling noisily against the dirt. His eyes glued to the gate that was slowly shutting, Steve pushed them forward with everything he had.

As the gate was more than halfway shut they got there, Steve shoving Bobby through on his knees. With seconds left before the gate shut completely, Steve rolled underneath to be able to fit through, hearing the loud clink as the steel gate came to a close. Sitting up Steve turned just in time to see one of the raptors run straight into the metal bars, snapping his jaws in anger at losing out on its prey.

“Jesus, fuck!”

Steve let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, as Clint fell onto his knees beside him cursing and mumbling. “You’re fucking insane!” Clint yelped, waving his arms in the air.

Steve put a hand to his heart, feeling his chest start to hurt. “I know that now.” Steve chuckled, turning his head to Bobby who was leaning against the cage looking like he’d seen a ghost. “You okay, Bobby?”

Bobby bobbed his head fast. “I’m good. I’m good. Thanks. Thank you.”

Steve nodded, letting Clint yank him off the ground. “Now you know why there was a position open on the Raptor team.”

Bobby’s eyed widened.

“You guys alright?” Logan came rushing back over, the other workers in tow. “That was a bloody close one!”

“We’re fine.” Steve answered, catching his breath. “May need to figure out a better way to catch the pigs though.”

Logan laughed deeply. “Good idea, Rogers. We’ll work on that.”

After a big fuss from the crew who’d left to get back to their jobs, and Bobby getting hoisted onto a truck to take to medical bay for a check-up, Steve decided to stay behind to check that the gate was holding up. Truth be told he just wanted to check on the velociraptors. The blonde stood behind the cage as he pulled out his inhaler and breathed in two puffs, watching through the bars as the raptors stood behind the trees, their eyes fixed on Steve like they were transfixed.

Steve knew he’d made a breakthrough training the raptors to even come to him when he called, he’d been even more surprised when he’d taught them how to wait and leave at the sound of his whistle. But he also knew that these were dinosaurs, a pack of dinosaurs, and dangerous ones at that. Steve may be their Alpha, but they were still velociraptors and not puppies.

Steve sighed as he jammed his inhaler back into his pocket, observing the raptors as their gaze tore from him, their forms retreating into the trees and out of sight. Incidents like that always made him realise just how hard he’d have to work to get his raptors to trust him.

“Well done, Steven.”

Steve frowned, someone clapped behind him and laughed. “You really are the dinosaur man.”

“What do you want, Schmidt?” Steve didn’t even turn to look at the German as he came to stand beside him, instead he kept his gaze on the trees.

“Oh, you know, just decided to take a stroll.” He said in his mocking tone. “I’m a lucky man to have seen what you just did, Steven. Very impressive, like I’ve said before, those raptors would make a good weapon with you at the reins.”

Steve felt his blood boil, having no choice but to look at the stern faced man. “Don’t start this again, Schmidt. I’ve told you once before, they’re not safe to take out of their confinements, they never will be used as weapons in war.”

“You haven’t even given them a chance.” Schmidt smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. “One field test, that’s all they need, prove how brilliant they could be against our enemies.”

“No.” Steve said firmly, turning fully to face the older man. “Nobody is going to go with your idea, and I won’t allow it.”

“You’re not in charge, Steven.”

“No I’m not, but they’re my raptors, I’m in charge of them, and I say what happens to them.”

“I’m sure Natasha can be swayed.” Schmidt said as he began walking around the place. “She’s up for anything that one.”

“She won’t let you.” Steve said confidently. “She’s nothing like you, she takes her job seriously, and actually cares about the employees.”

Schmidt chortled. “Well I’m sure we’ll find a way, I am second in command after all.”

“Natasha’s in charge of the security team, Schmidt, what she says goes.” Steve felt himself get angrier, the German could have a go at him all he wanted, but he didn’t like it when he brought his friends into it. “You’ll never be in charge of Shield Security whilst she’s around.”

Schmidt grinned maliciously, staring Steve down. “Well then, let’s hope she’s not around for much longer.”

Steve saw red, his hands balling into tight fists, ready to strike the man as he stood there grinning like a mad man. Luckily for him Clint chose that time to turn up, two massive buckets under both arms.

“Johann Schmidt.” Clint said, essentially spitting out the words. “Shouldn’t you be down in Shield’s office?”

“Shouldn’t you be minding your own business?” Schmidt retaliated, giving Clint a once over before taking a few steps back. “Well then Steven, I guess we’ll have to cut this short. I will see you soon.”

“Hopefully not.” Steve deadpanned.

Schmidt laughed loudly. “Ever the joker, Mr Rogers.” He gave a salute to them both before retreating with a big grin on his face. “Say hello to your raptors for me won’t you?” he called back as he got into his truck and sped off onto the road.

Clint shook his head at Steve. “What a fucking asshole.”

“I’ve always thought he was a nice guy myself.” Steve said sarcastically, earning a laugh from Clint as he held out his arms to take one of the buckets.

“Shouldn’t you be getting back home, you’ve been working since five this morning.”

Steve shrugged. “I’ll just check the stock in the shed and get going.”

So the two took a bucket each and began walking over to the sturdy shed beside the enclosure. Once there Clint opened up the cabin and lead Steve inside, stopping in front of the big, metal freezer.

“So, what did Schmidt want this time?” Clint asked, opening the freezer to reveal shelves full of dead mice and rats. “Did Natasha know he was here?”

“Probably not,” Steve answered, letting Clint handle the job of putting the raptors grub into the buckets before he counted stock. “He was talking about using the raptors in a field test again.”

Clint snorted. “Like Shield will allow that, they’d have to be pretty desperate to test out the raptor’s abilities outside of that cage.”

“Exactly.” Steve sighed. “There’s no way I’m letting Schmidt get his hands on my raptors, he’s obviously up to something bigger than just seeing how powerful these dinosaurs are.”

“Bet you a hundred bucks he wants to use them to take over the world.”

Steve chuckled. “You know what, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried.”

 

 

“One Mrs. Triceratops, two Mrs. Triceratops, Three Mrs. Triceratops…”

Peter groaned, leaning back on the bench he and Wade were occupying. “You just counted the Triceratops Wade!”

“There’s no other dinosaurs to count.” Wade said looking around as if some would magically appear. “Maybe I should start counting people.”

“Please don’t.” Peter sighed and tipped his head back, looking up at the cloudy sky. “What’s Loki doing? Is he still standing by the water fountain?”

Wade looked over not so discretely. “Mr. don’t touch my hair is currently talking on the phone, I wonder if it’s his boss from the robot clang.”

Peter laughed. “Is there a bush nearby?”

“Why would there-,” Wade’s eyes widened, and a cheeky grin slowly crept onto his face. “Oh, honey bear, you are so smart.” He said as he placed a sloppy, wet kiss onto an unsuspecting Peter’s lips.

Peter sat up in shock and grimaced. “Ew, Wade!”

“What?” Wade got up and looked down at the younger man all sweet and innocent. “You know you love my wet, dribble kisses!”

Peter wiped at his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie. “Urgh, you’re so gross.”

“Whatever you say, baby boy.” Wade sing-songed as he began dodging people, and hiding behind whatever he could to get a good spot next to Loki without him realising.

Peter shook his head, laughing as Wade stood behind a lamppost and tried his hardest to look discrete. If Loki wasn’t so wedged onto his phone then he’d say Wade would have positively been found out by now. Just as his boyfriend was moving along to the next item to hide behind, which was a garbage bin, Peter’s phone began vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out in confusion wondering who would be calling him at three in the afternoon, and wasn’t surprised to see his Aunt May’s name flash on the screen.

“Hi Aunt May.” Peter greeted as he answered the phone.

“ _Peter_!” Aunt May practically shouted down the other line. “ _Why on earth didn’t you call me when you arrived? I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!_ ”

“Oh,” Peter pulled a face, he completely forgot to call, too caught up in all the fun he and Wade were having. “I’m sorry Aunt May, the signal’s crap here, was going to call you soon.” He lied.

“ _Oh, oh okay_.” Aunt May breathed a sigh of relief. “ _I was worried,_ _I thought your boat sunk or something_.”

“Gee, that was depressing of you.”

“ _Yes, yes_ ,” Her voice suddenly changed, happy to finally hear from her nephew. _“So, how is it? Having fun? Is Wade behaving? Is Tony treating you well?_ ”

Just as Peter was about to answer he spotted Wade jump out of a bush right behind Loki, the waiter screamed loudly, spinning around to find Wade laughing his behind off. Peter burst out laughing as Loki suddenly began to chase Wade around with a big stick off the ground.

“ _Peter?”_

“Sorry, Aunt May, Wade just did something crazy.” He said with a grin, sending Wade a wave as he ran past, Loki hot on his tail.

“ _Of course he did.”_ He could practically hear her roll her eyes over the phone. “ _So? Aren’t you going to answer me, dear?_ ”

“Oh, uh yeah.” Peter turned his attention to the phone call, blocking out the sounds of Loki’s shouting. “Uh, it’s going good it’s a great place, we’re having lots of fun, as you can from my earlier comment Wade is behaving as he normally does, and we’ve seen Tony for about five minutes a couple of hours ago. Anything else?”

 “ _Oh I’m glad you’re… what did you say about Tony?”_

Of course she’d pick up on that. “We saw him about two hours ago, he said hi and went back to doing what rich, business men do.”

“ _Oh that little…”_ Aunt May growled. “ _He promised me, promised that he would spend time with you and show you the park!”_

“Well he’s pretty busy, Aunt May.” Peter shrugged. “Didn’t expect him to take time off work to spend time with his nephew that he hardly knows.”

“ _Peter, we are the only family he has left_!” May said in all seriousness. “ _I’m going to have a word with that little brother of mine, he needs a good clipping across the ear!_ ”

Peter hummed. “You do that, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.”

_“I’ll call you back later, okay? I’m going to call Tony right now!”_

Peter smiled, shaking his head at her determination. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

“ _Love you, sweetie.”_

“Love you too, Aunt May.” Peter said as he hung up the phone.

“PETER!”

The teenager’s head shot up at the urgency in Wade’s voice as he called him, and was surprised to see the man running full sprint towards him with a mad grin on his face. Peter was about to ask him what the hell was going on when his boyfriend grabbed a hold of his hand and yanked him off the bench.

“Run!”

“Wade, what the hell?” Peter yelped as Wade tugged him through the crowd.

“I got away from Loki!” Wade said as they turned a corner. “He’s trying to kill me I tell you!”

Peter laughed as they ran over a bridge. “Tony’s going to kill us for running away from him, Wade!”

All of a sudden Wade came to an abrupt stop, letting go of Peter’s hand to clutch at his chest. “Shit, I’m getting old.” He panted. “And since when do you care what Uncle Starky thinks?”

Peter thought about it. Wade was right, he didn’t exactly care if Tony shouted at him for abandoning their so called babysitter. It wasn’t like Loki was paying any attention to anything they were doing anyway.

“Good point.” He said, grinning as Wade sauntered up to him and wound his arms around the younger’s waist.

“And we can totally make out without feeling like we’re being watched now.” Wade waggled his eyebrows.

Peter snorted. “You are so weird.”

“It’s why you love me.” Wade grinned, leaning down to catch Peter’s lips between his own.

Peter then had a thought. Pulling back from the kiss he looked up at Wade with a smirk. “Hey, Wade?”

“Yes, smoocheykins?”

“You owe me ten bucks.”

Wade looked confused, then surprised, then a light bulb went off in his head and he let out a curse. “Aw, fuck.”

He forgot they’d had a bet, and Loki most definitely screamed like a girl.

 

 

Tony was nervous. Extremely nervous. Heck he hadn’t felt butterflies in his stomach like this since, well, a long time. He felt so tense that he had the radio on full blast in the car, and sped down the dirt track a little bit faster than was legal, which made him feel just a tad better but not by much.

You’d have sworn he was going to a big, important business meeting, or starting on a new project that was going to change the world, but no, he was going to meet his ex-boyfriend that he was still completely and utterly in love with. And to make matters worse, he hadn’t seen the guy since they’d broken up, and that had been six months ago. Tony had spent three of those months afterwards at his home in New York, paying more attention to Stark Industries whilst Bruce took over at the park. In the last three months he’d returned to the park, getting stuck into anything he could get his hands on, almost taking an interest in the new dinosaur thing, and building new tech for the innovation centre. All the while avoiding his ex like the plague.

And now, now he had to go and drive straight up to Steve’s doorstep and ask him for some help. Six months of side-stepping him and it takes an escape artist of a dinosaur and an anxious Luke Cage to push him right back into Steve’s space. He didn’t even know how Steve would react, and that’s what made his heart beat faster than what was normal.

In his own thoughts as he drove Tony didn’t even hear his phone ringing, until the call was diverted to the car’s radio, courtesy of his own design. Tony looked down for a second to see who it was and groaned as he saw his sister’s name pop up. He supposed he’d have to get it over and done with.

“May, my favourite sibling, how’s it going, big sis?” Tony said as cheerfully as he could.

“ _Mary was totally your favourite and_ _don’t give me that bullshit, Anthony Stark_.” Aunt May sounded outraged, like she was about to breathe fire and burn down some villages. “ _I’m so, so mad at you right now!_ ”

“Did I forget your birthday?”

“ _Jarvis sent me a card on your behalf as usual, and this is not about my birthday!_ ” Aunt May’s voice rose even higher if possible. “ _Where is Peter, Tony?_ ”

“Oh,” Tony bit his lip, slowing the car down to pay attention to the call. “He’s uh… in the Innovation centre…”

“ _He was TWO HOURS AGO!”_ She shrieked. “ _You promised me you’d spend time with Peter on his holiday Tony, and I find out you’ve abandon him and Wade whilst you go about your business elsewhere! How could you when you promised you’d look after him, and get to know him, Tony_?”

Tony sighed. “Look, work’s been so busy lately May, I couldn’t take the time off, but tomorrow I’ll-,”

“ _Tomorrow you’ll probably get more emails saying you have more meetings_.” May sighed heavily. “ _Tony, when are you going to start realising that we’re all you have left?”_

Tony stopped the car then. He pulled onto the side and stared down at his phone, rubbing his thumbs in circles across the side of his head. This was not a good time for this conversation.

“May, I know that, okay? I know.” He said seriously. “Dad left me these businesses and ever since then I’ve been working non-stop and I know nothing else, I feel like if I stop now everything’s going to go down the gutter.”

“ _You have help, Tony. You’re not alone with this_.” May said, sounding sincere. “ _Pepper is there to help run Stark Industries, and Bruce and Hank are your second hand men with Jurassic Island, you don’t have to constantly be at work. Dad was the same, and look what happened with him_.”

Tony groaned. “Don’t compare me to him.”

“ _Well I am_.” May said sternly, feeling like he needed a good kick up the butt. “ _You’re slowly becoming like him Tony, he always worked and never paid any attention to us, he never got to know us. We hardly knew him. I was shocked when you were so eager to take over his companies!”_

“I just… They were important to mom, she wouldn’t want them to fail. She put a lot of effort into them too, May.”

“ _I know, honey_.” May smiled, even though her brother couldn’t see it. “ _But would mom want you to work yourself to the ground? Would she want you to lose your family?_ ”

Tony rolled his eyes, here she goes using their mom against him again. “No, she wouldn’t.” he said, wishing he’d never picked up the damn phone.

“ _Exactly. Now please, just try and find some time to spend with Peter today, okay? For Peter’s sake? If Mary were alive today she’d want you to get to know him, Tony.”_

Tony nodded with an inaudible sigh. “Okay, okay, I’ll give Pepper a ring and see if we can switch some meetings around. I’ve got an important one to go to first though.”

“ _Good_.” May’s voice completely changed then, sounding a lot happier as she laughed lightly. “ _Important meeting, huh? Who’s this with, the King of France_?”

“Does France even have a King?” Tony said sounding way too sardonic to not be noticed.

“ _Don’t try and change the subject, who’s it with? I hope it’s worth missing your time with Peter_.”

Tony rolled his eyes and coughed into his hand. “It’s uh… it’s Steve.”

“ _Steve?”_ Aunt May gasped, letting out a cheeky laugh. _“Oh Tony, are you both back together?_ ”

“No!” Tony said quickly, knowing Aunt May would already be planning the wedding in her head. “No, we’re not, I’m just uh… I need to ask him for some help with this new dinosaur.”

“ _Oh_.” She sounded disappointed even from that one word. “ _Well, I hope you apologise to him for avoiding the poor boy for six months. Stupid move I must say, I can’t imagine what he’ll say to you when he sees you! I mean, he was so good for you Tony, you sounded so happy when you were with him and-_ ,”

“Jesus Christ!” Tony complained, interrupting her babbling. “You’re starting to sound like mom!”

“ _I was being serious, Tony_!” she said. _“He really was good for you and once again you let him get away because of your damn work! I haven’t even met him but I could tell whenever we spoke on the phone or on Skype you looked and sounded ten times happier, you always talked about him, you told him you loved him and you’ve never done that before and-,”_

Tony hung up the phone.

“Sorry sis,” Tony said running a hand through his hair. “I do not need that right now.”

Tony sighed deeply, gripping the steering wheel in his hands tightly. Just when he was feeling anxious and wanted to hide under a rock, his sister just had to go and blab on and on about Steve like talking about him would make Tony feel so much better. It had the opposite effect of course.

He knew he’d messed up, God did he know it. Everyone had told him so, his sister, Bruce, Pepper, even Thor who loved Steve like a brother and wanted the two to work it out so bad. He suddenly had the urge to turn the car around, when all of a sudden his phone buzzed and he picked it up to find a text message from May. He smiled at what she’d written.

_Bastard. It’s rude to hang up on a lady. Now go and make up with Steve before I come over there and make you. You’re meant for each other, I know it. Love you Anthony x P.S. tell Peter he needs a phone with better bloody signal!_

He supposed he should keep going then, since he was pretty sure May wasn’t kidding when she’d said she’d make him, he never took her threats lightly. So, with a deep inhale he put his foot on the gas and carried on down the track, seconds away from pulling into Steve’s property where he hadn’t been for months.

When Tony did turn into the property, he suddenly felt stupidly nostalgic. He’d spent a bit of time in Steve’s small cabin, every time he’d go there to be with Steve he always felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders, and Steve would always be there to make his stressful, crappy day a whole lot better with his big dinners, old fashioned movies and not to mention the long, hot baths. He sighed, he’d spent time in there with Steve, but not enough.

If seeing the cabin was sentimental enough, he wasn’t prepared for the longing he felt when he laid eyes on Steve himself. As he drove slowly down the path and parked a fair way from the house, Tony saw him and he hadn’t changed one bit in the half a year he hadn’t seen him. The trainer was working on his motorbike as he did whenever he was feeling stressed, down on his knees in the dirt as he used a spanner to tighten up some loose nuts.

He was wearing one of his tight, blue shirts that Tony loved seeing on him, and trousers that complimented his rear end perfectly, not to mention his dirty blonde hair was falling into his eyes that made him look like he was on some kind of modelling shoot. Damn, he looked good. And it didn’t help when he pushed his hair back with his fingers, wiping the sweat off his brow. Tony groaned, he was so screwed.

But he looked away, took a well needed breath, and thought about Aunt May cutting his tongue out if he didn’t get his butt out of the car. With one swift movement Tony opened his door and practically dived out, straightening his tie and rubbing down his suit encase there were creases. Steve still hadn’t noticed his presence since the radio was on, but as soon as Tony accidentally slammed the car door shut with a loud thud the blonde looked up and caught his eye.

Tony cursed in his mind. So much for playing it smooth. Tony tried not to let Steve’s stare faze him, being an expert in strutting Tony strolled on over to his ex-boyfriend with the biggest grin he could summon, noticing how Steve stood up, turned off his radio and gave him a not so friendly expression.

Tony kept on grinning, and in his most flirtatious voice said, “Well, hello handsome.”

Steve didn’t flinch.

“What the hell are _you_ doing here?”


	4. The Great Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the stupidly late update guys! I can't update very often due to work and what not but I'll try my best :)

“Is that any way to address your boss?”

Tony laughed at his own joke, waiting for a hint of a smile on Steve’s face. The blonde stood there, face still inexpressive, making Tony fidget with uncomfortableness.

“So, uh…” Tony coughed behind his hand, suddenly feeling like maybe he should have given Steve a warning that he was coming, and possibly not use a lame joke after what he’d done. “How’s things?” he asked, inwardly cringing at his own choice of words. His mouth really was running off.

Steve just sighed, looking down at the spanner in his hand before tossing it into the tool box. “What do you want, Tony?” he questioned, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew the man well enough to know he was trying to avoid the obvious tension between them with those jokes.

“Oh, me?” Tony grinned. “Just came down here to say hello.”

Steve unexpectedly smiled, shaking his head in disbelief. “You came down here to say hi?”

Tony nodded. “Yeah…” he drawled, suddenly feeling like the conversation was about to turn for the worst.

“You came down here to say hello, after six months of running away and completely avoiding me?” Steve said crossly, Tony’s prediction was just about right. “Don’t give me that bullshit Tony, you’re here because you want something, not to see me. So what is it?”

Tony wanted to spew out the truth. He wanted to tell Steve that yes, he did come down there to ask for help but deep down he’d wanted to see him since the day he left. He wanted to tell him that he’d missed him, he was an idiot before for not being there for him, and that he just wanted a second chance to be the man Steve needed. He almost blurted it out until he caught himself and all that came out was half the truth.

“We need some help at the enclosures.”

Steve looked like he’d been kicked in the gut, and Tony wanted to take him in his arms and hug him and tell him he was sorry. “Okay,” Steve’s dejected look changed so quick you could have missed it. “What enclosure?”

“The fonia… thingy’s enclosure.” Tony said, watching as Steve put his tools away into the blue box, acting like nothing was wrong between them at all.

Steve then laughed, coming as a surprise to Tony. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Tony asked confused.

“You do know that making that thing was a stupid idea right?” Steve said. “And that name, Foniassaurus, who the hell named it?”

“Bruce did.” Tony shrugged, suddenly interested in the dinosaur at the other’s words, putting aside their awkwardness for a moment. “How is it so stupid?”

“Because nobody knows how it’ll behave.” Steve said, he picked up his tool box and began heading towards his cabin, Tony having no choice but to follow through the muddy grass in his expensive shoes. “I don’t know which dinosaur’s genes they used, I wish I did to get a better understanding of it, but no matter what, nobody can tell what this thing could do.”

Steve dumped his tool box on the porch as he reached for his jacket hanging over the rail, standing on the step he slipped it on and noticed Tony’s eyes quickly avert to look at the ground.

“Well,” Tony shrugged. “Who’s to say it’s not a nice dinosaur?” he said with a smile.

“Tony, I’ve seen that thing a couple of times, hiding behind the trees in its old enclosure.” Steve said in all seriousness. “It’s not _nice_ , it stared me down like she was studying me, not to mention I’ve heard of her attempt to break out through the glass at this new place. They haven’t done enough research or testing on her, not even Bruce and Hank knew her traits when I asked them.”

“Okay, maybe she does need a little therapy for her anger issues.”

“ _Tony_.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Tony put his hands up in surrender. “This is why we need _you_ , to come check out her enclosure and see if you think it’ll hold and if anything needs adding or changed.”

“I’d be able to help more if I knew what dinosaur’s genes are in her.” Steve said.

“Classified.” Tony grinned, earning a roll of the eyes from Steve. “Hey, if it helps, even I don’t know what dinosaurs were used.”

“Doesn’t help.” Steve said as he began walking down the steps and across the lawn to his bike.

Tony trailed behind him once again and only then noticed that the blonde had picked up his keys from somewhere, sticking them in the ignition. Steve was about to start up the engine when Tony stopped him.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

Steve gazed at his bike then up at Tony like it was apparent. “I’m going to the Foniassaurus like you asked me.”

“My car’s that way.” Tony pointed out.

“I’ll take my bike.”

Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Steve, let me take you, I don’t want this to be awkward between us.”

Steve let out a small laugh. “Says the guy who left the island just to be away from me.”

“I…” Tony inhaled deeply, yelling at himself in his head to just stop being a scaredy-cat and face it. “I just needed time to think, Steve.”

Steve heaved a sigh. “Did you really have to avoid me for so long though?” he said, pulling his keys out of the bikes start-up. “I was worried about you.”

 Tony felt his heart swell at the words, and couldn’t help but smirk a little. “You were worried about little, old me?”

Steve gave another eye roll, which seemed to happen a lot around the other man. “Shut up, Tony. Let’s go.”

“But…” Before Tony could find the guts to say what he wanted, Steve was striding past him and heading for his car. Well at least he was getting into Tony’s vehicle, he counted that as a start.

The drive to the dinosaur’s enclosure didn’t seem any more promising though. The ten minute ride felt more like a ten hour ride. Tony had stuck the radio on quietly in the background as he drove off, Steve sitting beside him tight-lipped, looking at anything but Tony.

Every time the engineer wanted to open his mouth to start explaining himself, or even apologise, he’d pull himself back and go downright blank. It wasn’t that he was being scared this time, but each time he’d pluck up the courage he’d gaze over at Steve who was obviously trying to avoid any conversation by the way he was sticking to his side of the car and turned away from the other man. His vibe was pretty clear that he didn’t want to talk.

Tony was getting more and more agitated by the minute, and as he pulled up in front of the Foniassaurus’s building it become apparent that he had to fix this or he’d lose Steve even as a friend. So as the car stopped and Steve unbuckled his belt, reaching a hand for the door handle, Tony heaved a big sigh and mentally gave himself a good kick up the behind before he stretched over and grabbed a hold of Steve’s arm.

“Steve?”

The blonde blinked in astonishment as Tony caught him, looking over at the older man in confusion. “What?” he asked, noticing how the engineer’s face looked serious enough that he wasn’t about to pop out another joke. “What is it, Tony?”

As Steve settled back in his seat, Tony pulled away his hand and stared at the blonde like a deer caught in headlights. He’d come this far to want to talk to Steve, and now he didn’t know how to start.

“Look, Tony,” Steve said all of a sudden. “If you have something to say I’ll listen, but if you don’t I really think I’d better get inside the enclosure.”

“Okay.” Tony piped up, fidgeting in his seat for a while before he sat still. This was it, he had to do it now or his chance would be blown. “I uh… I just… you we’re right… about um… about me avoiding you…”

Steve gave him a look that quite frankly said ‘no shit’. Tony continued. “I wasn’t kidding… when I said I needed time to think… I just… I needed time to process that we were over and that… that I was a terrible boyfriend and didn’t even realise it!”

“Tony,” Steve sighed, hating the way Tony seemed so nervous and miserable. “You weren’t a terrible boyfriend!”

“I was.” Tony snorted, running a hand through his hair. “It’s why you ended it Steve, you said so yourself… I wasn’t there for you… I could have treated you better.”

“I never said you were a terrible boyfriend.” Steve confirmed. “I would never say that.”

“Steve,” Tony went on, feeling more and more ready to let the truth spill out as he went. “I realised when I left that you were right… God you were so right! I was never there for you as much as I should have been! All those work calls, meetings, events that I’d spend hours at until early hours, flying off to New York all the time… I should… I should have treated you as my first priority, not my work, and I’m so fucking sorry.”

Steve looked down at his hands, practically whispering his next words. “Your work always comes before anyone, Tony. Not just me.”

Tony sighed softly, running a shaky hand through his tousled hair. “I know.” He admitted. “It’s always been that way I… I don’t know anything else, I’ve been working since I was eleven… it’s just the way I was raised.”

“It doesn’t have to keep going on like that, you know.” Steve said, catching the other man’s gaze. “You even told me yourself that you hardly see your sister anymore, Tony. Not to mention Peter.”

“Yeah,” Tony bit down on his bottom lip, thinking about his nephew and boyfriend wandering around the park. “He’s here, Peter and his boyfriend.”

“What?” Steve let out in surprise. “Here? As in here at the park?”

Tony nodded, earning an annoyed look from the blonde. “Jesus, Tony.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Your nephew is here and you’re not spending your time with him?”

“I had meetings this afternoon.” As soon as the engineer had said it he regretted it. “I mean… I was going to see them tonight, for some food and stuff.”

“Of course.” Steve grunted. He watched as Tony’s expression turned from stern, to sad, to nervous, knowing he hated being in these situations. “Tony.” Steve said softly, the engineer looking up at him. “You need to stop this, you need to start putting your work to the back of your mind, or it’s not just me you’re going to lose.”

At Steve’s words Tony felt a lump in his throat, his mind drifting to the day Steve had said similar words to him before he’d ended their one year relationship. “I know.” He said soundlessly, hating how defeated he sounded. “I wish I had tried harder, I wish I hadn’t lost you.”

“OI!”

Steve and Tony jumped out of their skin as there came a loud knock on the driver’s side window. Tony twisted around to find Luke’s face almost squished against the glass, glaring down at him with his huge, terrifying eyes.

“You coming in or what?”

With that said Luke sauntered off into the enclosure’s viewing area, leaving the two once again alone. Before Tony could even think about what he wanted to say next, Steve had opened his door and was stepping out, carefully shutting it behind him as the engineer sat and stared at the spot he’d been occupying.

Tony sighed heavily, he wasn’t sure if what just happened was good or bad, or if he felt better or worse, and it made his brain feel like it was about to explode. But he didn’t have much time to sit there because Steve was making his way slowly to the building Luke had just gone into, Tony undid his belt and got out of the car as swift as he could. He jogged to keep up with Steve and they both walked side by side towards the structure.

“We’ll talk later.”

Tony just about caught Steve’s words, but realising what the blonde had said he couldn’t help but feel encouraged.

His mood lifted quite a bit when they got into the visitor’s hall for the Foniassaurus’s lair,   
Steve could tell by the way he greeted Luke with a punch to the shoulder, which he was usually way too petrified to do. Luke wasn’t impressed, but continued to stab at the computer screen in the corner as Tony spoke animatedly to him. Steve took the opportunity to look around, the room was big enough to fit at least a hundred people and it had plenty of information splattered across the wall that would undoubtedly take hours to read.

The blonde made his way over to the glass, and he gave it a rap with his knuckles. It was solid, thick enough to stop a cannonball from breaking right through, and it was welded down well enough by the seals from what he could tell. When his gaze lifted though, he wasn’t sure if it was strong enough to stop this dinosaur. Steve stared at the massive crack in the glass, the one Bruce had told him about not long ago, he was expecting a break the size of a football not what he saw in front of him.

“My god.” Steve said under his breath, reaching a hand out to trail across the lines.

“What do you think, Rogers?”

Steve shook his head in disbelief as Luke came to stand beside him, accompanied by Tony. “This is insane, I thought this glass was made to stand an explosion?”

“It is,” Luke said, folding his arms across his chest. “It’s one of the thickest pieces of glass in the world.”

Tony snorted, earning a glare from the bigger man.

“If this is supposed to be one of the thickest pieces of glass in the world,” Steve went on. “Then how come the Foniassaurus can break it with one hit?”

“Because it’s too strong, and shouldn’t be here.”

The three men looked over at the person approaching them. A tall woman with dark hair and a stern expression, her builder’s hat mismatched with her leather boots and jacket.

“Hey Jess,” Luke greeted, leaning down to peck her on the cheek.

“Hey.” She nodded to the other two. “What do you think?” she asked, looking at Steve.

“Just what you do.” He said, as Jessica nodded along. “This dinosaur should never have been made, if it can break this glass then it’s not safe.”

Tony huffed, coming to stand by Steve’s other side. “Come on Steve, we can fix the glass!”

“Oh, will we?” Jessica raised her brows in question, hands on hips. “It’s not exactly easy to fix, Stark.”

“Well,” Tony shrugged. “Can’t you put in a new one?”

“That’ll take more time,” Luke answered, irritated by the mere thought of having to do more work on the same arena. “We haven’t even finished the outer walls yet!”

“Then get a move on, once Steve’s taken a look you can hop to it!”

“He’s already said the glass won’t work!”

“Then use thicker glass!”

“It can’t get any thicker than that!”

Steve didn’t want to hear anymore. It seemed like Jessica was in the same boat as she shared a look with him before sauntering off to use the touch screen, Steve going the opposite direction. The researcher drowned out the sounds of the two bickering like a pair of teenagers by gazing through the glass, taking in every detail of the enclosure that he could.

By what he could tell from this angle, the arena appeared pretty safe. The walls must have been around fifty feet tall, ten feet taller than the dinosaur itself, they were made using beams and tough cement from what he was told, but they seemed thicker than the glass which was a bit of a relief. But Steve still couldn’t help but feel like the place wasn’t right for the creature. Never in his career at the park had he seen a dinosaur attempt an escape, not even the T-Rex had put a dent in its cage.

There was just something about this creature that made Steve feel anxious. From the way it had looked at him that one time, to the attempted breakout, and the mix of dinosaur’s genes inside it that Steve could only imagine wasn’t a good idea, this thing was danger waiting to happen. And it only took seconds for Steve’s uncertainties to come true.

As his gaze travelled to his right, scanning the impenetrable walls, his eyes widened as he took in what was on the other side of the glass. Steve took a few small steps forward, breathing growing heavy, and heart beating loudly against his chest. He gasped, this was not good.

“Luke.”

His voice came out so brash he’d put a halt to the pairs yelling match, their attention brought to him instead. Jessica even looked up, computer forgotten as she followed Steve’s line of sight.

“Have they always been there?” Steve practically whispered.

The three walked towards the blonde and the closer they got the wider their eyes grew. All three felt a sudden surge of panic, Luke cursing loudly as Jessica grabbed him by the arm and tugged him out of the hall.

“Steve?” Tony swallowed the growing lump in his throat, suddenly feeling sick to the stomach. “Please, tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

Steve stared at the long scratch marks that decorated the wall. They were dug deep into the barricade, starting from the bottom and making their way right to the very top. There was only one thing that could have done it.

“I think the Foniassaurus is smarter than it looks.”

Tony was sprinting for the exit before they could utter another word, yelling back at Steve to stay exactly where he was. As soon as he got out into the outside, all hell was breaking loose around the place. People were shouting orders, others running around in panic, some getting too scared and heading for the safety of the indoors, and before Tony got into his car he looked at the side gate that led into the dinosaur’s cage.

Luke and Jessica stood there, agitatedly jabbing the code into the lock mechanism to go inside.

“Luke!”

The toned man turned around and caught his gaze. “What are you waiting for, idiot?” Luke bawled, as the gate swung open to the side. “Get to the damn control room and track that thing!”

Tony didn’t need to be told twice. Fumbling with his car keys it took him way too long to jab them into the lock and get inside the car, once in the driver’s seat he started the engine and sped off onto the dirt road, leaving a large cloud of dust behind.

Tony didn’t give a damn that he was probably going way over the speed limit, right now he had to get to the control room before that creature so much as got halfway to the public part of the park. Heart racing, hands shaking, Tony hastily snatched a hold of his phone and dialled the control room number, hoping to God there wasn’t some kind of failure in the system like there had been days ago.

“ _Anthony!_ ”

Tony wanted to cry in relief. “Thor! This is an emergency, you hear me?”

“ _Emergency_?” The man’s voice suddenly became serious, meaning he was all ears. “ _You’re on speaker, Mr. Stark!_ ”

“Guys, code red, we have a breakout!” He could hear the abrupt racket of commotion on the other end of the line. “The Foniassaurus has escaped, get her up on the screen and find out where the hell she is, now!”

“ _We’re on it!_ ” Thor answered, mumbling to another as Tony waited anxiously.

It felt like hours before he got a reply from Thor, but in reality it only took a few minutes to get the dinosaur up on screen. By then he was five minutes from the building, but he needed to know now.

“ _Uh… Anthony_?” Came Thor’s confused tone.

“What?”

“ _We have the Foniassaurus on screen,_ ” Thor began. “ _Um… she’s in her enclosure…_ ”

Tony stared ahead, mouth wide open but no words coming out. “But…” he shook his head, there must have been something wrong with the tracker. “No. No, no, she climbed out, we saw the marks! She’s escaped, there’s no other explanation!”

“ _Trust me, Anthony,_ ” Thor said in all seriousness. “ _We’re all looking at the tracking system right now, she’s still in there, she’s making her way to the edge of the cage_.”

Tony felt his stomach drop. He suddenly felt awfully sick, his heart was virtually beating out of his chest by now. How the hell did the dinosaur make those marks? It must have tricked them, but, could dinosaurs be that smart? She made them think it had escaped, when in reality she was still inside. And then it hit him. Luke and Jessica were going inside.

“Fuck.” Tony breathed.

“ _Anthony!_ ” Thor screeched down the phone. “ _What the hell are they doing inside the enclosure?_ ” The control room had obviously put the security cameras on screen and seen it for themselves.

“You can see Jess and Luke?” Tony cursed under his breath. “Shit! I’ve got to get a hold of them, keep an eye on that damn monster!”

“Uh… Anthony?”

“What?” Tony screamed in agitation, he had to hang up.

“Steve is in there too!”

Tony’s foot slammed down hard on the break, the car coming to an abrupt stop right around the corner from the control room building.

“No.” Tony whispered, feeling the cold of fear creep up on him. “No!”

The engineer hung up on Thor, not caring what he had to say next, because he needed to hear Steve’s voice for himself, he needed to get them the hell out of there before that thing got anywhere near them. Hands continuing to shake out of control, Tony hurriedly dialled Steve’s number, knowing he’d get a hold of the group a whole lot quicker that way.

The long, deafening ring kept on going. It rang and rang, and the more it rang the more Tony felt like he was going to throw up.

 

“I just don’t understand how it could have just jumped the wall without us noticing.”

Jessica crossed her arms over her chest, annoyed as hell at what had happened. The three had checked out the scuffs on the wall up close, surely enough it was unquestionably the Foniassaurus’s claw marks, dug deep into the stone.

Jessica and Luke had sauntered further into the cage, checking out the dinosaur’s footprints that led into the greenery. Steve stayed to take a look around the wall, seeing if there was any other evidence at how on earth such a humongous dinosaur could have gotten past them.

“I don’t understand it either.” Steve answered Jessica, walking over to them. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

None of it made sense to him. The guards had been on duty all throughout the day, standing by their posts by the visitor’s entrance, builders walked back and forth constantly, and there were cameras all around the place. Someone was bound to notice. Unless…

“Luke?” Steve turned to the man, who seemed as baffled as his wife. “Was there any time of the day when nobody was around? Maybe for dinner, or for a break of some sort?”

Luke thought about it, he had every single builder’s schedule lined up on his office wall. “I think… yeah I think they all had a half hours break today, two guards were left here obviously, but that’s about it.”

“So, nobody was here except for the two guards who couldn’t see inside the cage?” Steve said, starting to put things together.

Luke nodded slowly. Then Steve moved his gaze around the enclosure, eyes landing on each and every camera that was stuck to the wall. One by the gate, one in the corner by the glass windows, and another, hidden amongst the trees looking right into the dinosaur’s woodland. There were no cameras that could point towards where the Foniassaurus had made those marks, and all of a sudden Steve felt a chill run down his spine.

“Steve?” Jessica called quietly, noticing how the blonde’s face swiftly paled.

The researcher turned to the two, feeling his phone begin to vibrate in his pocket. “What if it didn’t escape?”

Jessica and Luke looked at each other as if they both thought Steve had lost it. Luke laughed out loud, shaking his head. “Don’t be ridiculous, the evidence is right there.” He said, as Steve pulled out his phone.

“Exactly.” Steve said, noticing it was Tony who was calling. “We need to get out of here.” He said, backing up a little, hoping the other two would get the hint and follow. “Now.”

Turning around, ready to get the hell out of the dinosaur’s space, Steve answered his phone. “Tony?”

What he didn’t see coming was the engineer screaming down the phone, his words making Steve wish he’d been wrong about the scratch marks.

“ _STEVE! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!_ ” Tony bellowed, sounding frantic. “ _IT’S STILL IN THERE! GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!_ ”

But before Steve could turn around and warn the other two, he heard something. It was a noise he did not want to be hearing this close up. The deep, growling grew into a loud grumble as Steve spun around slowly with his phone still at his ear, Tony’s panicking voice calling out his name.

Steve’s eyes widened, his phone dropping onto the dirt as he came face to face with the Foniassaurus, Jessica and Luke standing even closer to it. Steve could feel his heart begin to race, his palms were sweaty, and his legs began to shake as fear started to take over at the size of the thing standing before them, forty feet tall with jaws bigger than a T-rex. But he didn’t have time to be scared, he knew that if he didn’t act now they’d all be done for. Measuring the distance in his mind from where they were to the gate, Steve knew they’d have a chance, they just needed to run as fast as their legs could take them.

However, before Steve could even open his mouth the giant opened its enormous jaws, and gave out an ear-splitting roar. The sound was so powerful it sent the three stumbling backwards, and not one of them wasted any time in making a move.

“Run!” Steve shouted, as Luke pushed him and Jessica towards the gate.

It felt like slow motion as the three lifted their feet off the ground and made a sprint for the open gate. Steve kept his eyes on the exit, trying his damn hardest to tune out the thunderous thumping of the dinosaur’s feet on the ground. He tugged Jessica along as she began to falter from not having her husband beside her, Luke running at the back like a barrier between them and the meat eater.

“Go!” Luke yelled at her, her steps quickening.

They were so close, Steve could practically count their steps to freedom. But what happened next had Jessica halt abruptly, Steve having that sickly feeling in his stomach. The two turned as they heard Luke scream at the top of his voice, the first thing they see is the Foniassaurus’s teeth clamming around Luke’s body, lifting him into the air.

“LUKE!” Jessica cried.

Steve stood there in horror as the dinosaur bit down with its powerful jaws, blood beginning to pour from between its sharp teeth, Luke’s body going lifeless and limp like a ragdoll. Jessica screamed in agony, watching in anger and pain as her husband was crushed in the Foniassaurus’s mouth, the creature ripping the man’s body into pieces before flinging what was left of him onto the earthy ground, the creature eyed the two remaining prey and started to take slothful steps forward.

“Jess!” Steve bellowed at the screaming woman, trying desperately to get her to look at him. “We have to run, now!”

“NO!” Jessica yelled back, pushing Steve away towards the gate. “Get out of here! Just go!” she said, face contorted in anger.

“Jess, no!”

“JUST GO!” She shrieked, hand moving into her back pocket to retrieve a hand gun. “If I go down, I go down with him!”

“Jess.” Steve let out in a soft voice. He didn’t want to lose another friend, not like this.

“Go.” She said one last time as she turned back to face the colossal monster. She wasn’t going anywhere.

Steve wanted to yell at her some more, make her see reason, tell her that Luke wouldn’t have wanted this. But he knew deep down that Jessica wouldn’t go down without a fight, and she wouldn’t let her husband go down alone. So he took one last look at his friend, and made a run through the side gate.

As he got out he could see people running for cover, some standing there in sheer shock, Steve started bawling at them to hide without a second thought. Then, from inside the enclosure, gunshots could be heard firing off one after the other. Steve felt his stomach do a funny turn, the image of Luke being eaten alive still on his mind and before he knew it he was on his knees in the middle of the dirt path, bringing up the contents of his stomach.

Steve’s insides hurt, they hurt so bad he’d felt like he’d been booted in the gut. His head began to spin from the whole situation, and all he could think about was his two dead friends behind those grey walls. He didn’t have much time to think before he heard the Foniassaurus give out another ear-piercing growl, and that’s when the ground began to shake from its heavy footsteps.

Steve didn’t want to look behind him as he got up from the floor faster than lighting. The dinosaur was still behind those walls, but he had a funny feeling not even those were going to hold after seeing the thing up close. The researcher sprinted across the path as fast as he could, an idea springing to mind as he got closer to three of the ground’s SUVs parked in a line. As soon as he came to rest beside one of the vehicles, a resounding explosion erupted from the walls of the Foniassaurus’s home, rubble and dust flying into the air.

Steve’s eyes widened in shock as the new breed of dinosaur crashed through, roaring once more as if letting the whole park know that she was free, and she was ready to hunt. It was confirmed that those walls indubitably couldn’t hold her. Steve, hoping against all odds that she hadn’t seen him, hurriedly got down in the dirt and rolled under the jeep to lay on his back. And he waited.

Breathing heavily, trying his hardest not to make a sound, Steve listened as the dinosaur’s loud footfalls edged closer to him. She must have seen him, there was no other explanation. Then it hit him, he felt like an idiot for not even thinking about the obvious although his mind was in frantic mode at that minute, he was a dinosaur researcher and he’d forgotten what most dinosaurs were very good at. Smelling. And if she was anything close to a T-Rex, then she could undeniably smell him as if he were right in front of her nose.

Steve had to think of something, and quick. He could just about make out her gigantic feet heading towards him, so he gave the underneath of the car a quick scan, hoping to find an item that could hide his smell. Then his eyes landed on the petrol cord. Without a second thought Steve stuffed a hand into the back pocket of his jeans, yanking out a pocket knife that Tony had gotten him a long time ago for, as he’d put it, dinosaur emergencies. He was more than thankful that Tony’s little joke of a gift was possibly about to save his life.

 Steve seized a hold of the petrol line and wrenched it towards him, with his other hand holding the knife he started to saw at it speedily. After what seemed like a lifetime the tube finally broke in half, the contents inside spilling all over Steve’s chest. The blonde placed the knife back into his pocket, before he spread the petrol further down onto his legs and arms like a flash, making sure his scent was covered enough to fool the smart creature.

And as the Foniassaurus got to him, Steve froze. Out in the corner of his eye he could see the dinosaur’s large feet, before all of a sudden it was bending down and it’s sharp, bared teeth came into view. Steve closed his eyes tight, not wanting to see what the animal’s next move would be, he just prayed inside his head that his plan had worked and he’d get out of this one alive.

Within seconds Steve felt the warm air of the dinosaur’s breath ghost across his skin, the foul smell of it making him want to heave. There came a low snuffle, a quiet sniff, then just as quickly as it had happened Steve heard her move around and back away. He opened his eyes, and let out a huge sigh of relief as the dinosaur’s footsteps walked away, heading into the trees at the side of her old arena.

Steve ran a hand through his hair, taking deep breaths as he felt his chest begin to pain. He couldn’t get over how close he’d been to becoming the Foniassaurus’s next prey, how easy it was for her to get to him, to anyone. How smart she’d been to lure them into her home, to trap them, to kill two of his friends. And now she was free, roaming the island like a wild animal, a creature that was born in captivity able to hunt whatever she came across. There were over twenty thousand people at the park, every single one of those lives were in danger.

So Steve rolled out from under the jeep, pushing past a few employers that had ran to him asking all sorts of questions, and demanded one of them take him to the laboratory. He was not going to take this laying down, he was going to get into that damn laboratory and find out what the hell that creature was made of, because frankly it had to be stopped before it reached the park. It had to be stopped before any more innocent lives were taken.


	5. The Chase

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry again for the late update guys! I won't be posting regularly due to commitments but I'll do my very best! :) Enjoy!

Tony felt numb as he walked through the white hallways, hand clutching his phone tight, legs shaking and heart beating at full volume. People that were running around with phones glued to their ears, yelling things at each other, stopped in mid step as their boss passed them, staring with wide eyes and knowing looks. He didn’t notice, didn’t want to pay them any attention, blocking out their voices and sad faces entirely. Tony just wanted to get to the control room, he needed to know what had happened.

The last thing he’d heard over his phone was Steve shouting, Steve’s obvious panic, before the sound of a dinosaur’s ear-splitting roar echoed through the line. He could still hear it now, as if mocking him. Tony had no idea what had happened, if the three had gotten out of there in time, if Steve was alright or even alive. His pace hastened as his thoughts swirled around in his mind, hoping to God that the nauseating pictures in his mind weren’t about to come true.

As the engineer pressed down on the handle to the control room’s door, he took a deep breath and pushed. Tony slowly made his way inside, prepared to see a room full of workers frantically running around, giving orders and preparing for what was to come next. What he wasn’t expecting was for everyone to be sitting at their posts, silent, all eyes turning to him as he wandered in. Tony could feel the blood drain from his face at their sombre expressions, even Thor had the face of someone who’d been crushed.

Tony swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, taking small steps over to his friend who stood as he drew closer. He didn’t want to hear it, he didn’t want to hear what had happened, he didn’t want to hear that he’d lost the man who meant everything to him.

“Tony.” Thor began, noticing his boss’s eyes becoming teary.

“Steve?” he breathed out, voice shaky. “P-please tell me he’s… he’s alright.”

Thor’s eyes widened, like a lightbulb had just gone off in his head. “Jesus, Tony, I’m so sorry!” he said quickly, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder. “No, no, Steve, he’s fine! He’s alright! A workers bringing him in as we speak.”

Tony felt his heart skip a beat at Thor’s words, he let out a heavy breath he’d been holding, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Fuck.” He cursed, holding a hand to his heart, one stray tear falling down his cheek. “Jesus, fucking Christ!” before he could stop himself he felt his knees give way, thankfully Thor was quick enough to guide him into a chair.

“Sorry, I thought you knew!” Thor apologised sincerely. “I thought you’d gotten the message from the builders over there already! They must have been too busy with… uh… shit you don’t…”

Tony heard the despair in his voice, it didn’t go unnoticed. “What?” Tony questioned. He didn’t know what could have been worse than a gigantic dinosaur escaping, and almost killing people. But then it struck him. He’d been so concerned about Steve that he’d blocked out everything else.

“Jess and Luke?”

Thor had told him Steve was alive. He hadn’t said anything about Jessica and Luke.

“I…” Thor sighed, shaking his head. “They’re gone.”

Tony groaned, raking his hands through his hair. “Shit!” he bellowed, making everyone in the room jump. “I can’t believe this is fucking happening!” he exhaled.

“Sir?”

Tony scrubbed a hand down his face as he looked up at one of the employees, making him step back at the look of anger on Tony’s face.

“Uh… what-what do we do now, Sir?” he asked nervously.

Tony wished there was an easy answer, a way to just snap his fingers and make the problem disappear, bring back his friends. But life was cruel and there was only one thing they could do.

Tony turned to Thor. “Get Shield on the line.”

“No need,” Thor said, pointing a finger at the door. “I called them as soon as it happened.”

Tony spun around in his chair, not really surprised when he came face to face with the leaders of Shield themselves. Natasha Murdock and Matt Murdock stood there looking grim, obviously they’d heard about what had gone down, and were there to put a stop to it.

“Stark.” Natasha said as a greeting.

“Nat, Matt!” Tony pushed himself up, making his way over. “You’re here, right, thank fuck.”

“Thor told us what happened, we got the team ready as fast as we could.” Matt said, eyes on the floor. Luke and Jessica had been a close friend of his since school, hearing the news of their sudden death was like a punch to the gut. “I can’t believe they’re gone.”

“Yeah,” Tony fiddled with his phone in his hand, not knowing what to say in such a situation. He’d never lost a friend before, let alone two. “I uh… I’m sorry, Matt.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Natasha answered for him, expression serious. “That dinosaur should have been put down as soon as she tried to escape the first time.”

Matt nodded in agreement. “Is Steve alright?”

“Yeah, he’s uh… I think he’s okay.” Tony said. “He’s on his way.”

“Good.” Natasha said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m glad he’s alright.”

Tony sighed. “Me too.” he said, as Matt took out his phone. “I was going to ask you something.”

“Kill the dinosaur, right?” Matt asked as he typed into his phone, looking up as he stuffed it into his back pocket. “We’re on it.”

“Our team are outside waiting, we just need your order and we’ll get out there stat.” Natasha said, calling some employees over. “We need to grab a tracker.”

“Here!” Thor ran over, handing her an electronic device. “Carol’s at the front row, she’s getting the cameras up, connecting your team to our computers.”

“Good.” Natasha fiddled with the tracker, tossing it to Matt as she zipped up her jacket. “We’ve got our coms on, we’ll be in contact the whole time.” She said as she turned to talk to the other workers.

Tony nodded. “How are you going to kill it?”

“With the only way we can,” Matt simply said, “with big guns.”

“You’re going out there?”

The group turned to the latest person in the room. Tony’s eyes widening in revelation at the sight of Steve standing by the doors, looking exhausted and covered in dirt and grime.

“Steve?” he whispered.

Before he could even think what he was doing, Tony was stepping towards the blonde and wrapping his arms around him. He held Steve tight to him, closing his eyes and relishing in the fact that he was there, breathing, still alive. Steve was filthy, his clothes were soaked right through and he stank of petrol, Tony couldn’t imagine what he’d been through to get out of the dinosaur’s clutches.

Realising he still had him in a tight hug, Tony quickly let go and took a tentative step back. He now too had a discrete smell of petrol over his shirt, but he couldn’t care less as long as Steve was safe.

“Sorry.” He said, wanting to say so much more. _I was so scared, I didn’t want to lose you, don’t do that to me again!_

“I’m okay, Tony.” Steve said with a small smile, knowing exactly what the other man was thinking, standing there like a deer caught in headlights. He would have been thinking the same if their roles were reversed.

Tony nodded rapidly, avoiding the blonde’s gaze.

“Steve,” Natasha spoke up, giving him a one armed hug. “I’m glad you’re alright, I’m so sorry for what happened to Jess and Luke.” She said, keeping a hand on his arm. “But I promise you, we’re going to take that thing down.”

“You can’t!” Steve said hard-heartedly, the room going silent and all eyes turning to listen to the dinosaur expert. “Did you not see what that thing did?”

“We did, Steve,” Matt answered. “We can bring it down, we’re taking our strongest weapons-,”

“That doesn’t matter!” Steve said in all seriousness, becoming irritated that nobody was even thinking about the dangers they were about to face. “She’s smart, you saw that. She _tricked_ us into thinking she had escaped, no dinosaur has _ever_ done something like that before.”

“She may be smart, but she’s never been out of her cage before,” Natasha said. “We have an advantage, she’ll have no idea how to survive out in the wild.”

“That’s the problem,” Steve said, lowering his voice. “She’s been cooped up behind walls since the day she was born, now she’s free, she’s out there exploring and hunting and nothing’s stopping her from doing what she wants.” Steve looked between Matt and Natasha, a pleading look in his eyes. “She will kill _anything_ that gets in her way, you won’t be able to stop her.”

There was silence in the room for what felt like hours. Every employee waited for someone to give them an order or say something, Tony torn between attending to Steve’s words and wanting to hunt and kill the Foniassaurus as soon as they could. They all knew Steve could be right, yet nobody knew what else they could possible do.

“We have to do this, Steve.” Natasha spoke up first. “We have no choice.”

Steve shook his head, eyes staring at the ground, feeling like his words were going in one ear and coming out the other. They we’re preparing to walk to their deaths.

“We need to kill this thing,” Matt said, putting an arm around Natasha. “If it gets bad out there, we’ll turn back. But we have to try before someone else gets hurt or worse.”

“You do what you have to do.” Tony piped in, not wanting to waste any time and start an argument. He sneaked a quick glance at Steve, who kept his gaze on the carpet, before continuing. “We just have to keep this thing away from the public, no matter what.”

Natasha and Matt nodded, before turning to leave.

“Look after your wife, Matt.” Tony said playfully, trying to brighten their moods but only earned an eye roll from Natasha.

Matt just laughed quietly to himself as he gave Steve a pat on the back, disappearing through the double doors. Natasha stopped in front of the blonde, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a slight shake.

“Hey,” She said softly, making the younger man look up. “Don’t worry, if anything goes wrong out there we’ll abort, okay?”

Steve tried to smile, but failed terribly. “Stay safe.” Was all he could say, knowing nobody would heed his words no matter how hard he tried.

Natasha smiled, before following her husband through the doors and into the waiting vans outside.

The room was deadly silent. Every employee now sitting at their stations awaiting orders, Thor and Carol already done with connecting Shields cameras to the main screen, every soldier’s individual body cam brought up for the entire control room to watch their every move. All eyes were on Tony as he gazed around the room, heart pumping probably as fast as those soldiers as they got closer to the danger.

“Right,” Tony heaved a heavy sigh, clapping his hands together. “Let’s do this.” He said, as he came to stand next to Thor. “Carol, keep the cameras of every soldier up on screen, Thor, get the Foniassaurus’s tracker up and everyone else, be ready for whatever comes next.”

In a flash every person in the room went straight to it, and the noise grew. As the workers got themselves prepared for Shield’s mission, Tony, feeling like he was about to get a dirty look, turned and was startled to see Steve sitting on the floor, staring up at the large screen at the front of the room. His eyes darted across it, watching as the Shield militias got their weapons ready at the back of their van as it sped through the wilderness.

  Tony, being cautious, took unhurried steps in Steve’s direction, sitting himself down beside him just as slow. Steve didn’t even flinch, eyes stuck on what was happening on the screen.

Tony bit his lip in agitation. “Steve?” the man finally turned his attention to him. “I’m sorry for not backing you up, I just… I knew Nat wouldn’t listen to me if I told them not to go, so, I had to let Shield do what they needed to.”

Steve nodded slowly. “I know.” He breathed out. “I understand, she can be stubborn as hell.”

Tony chuckled, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, I don’t want to be getting on her bad side, not today.”

Steve hummed, eyes going back to the screen. He felt his heart quicken as he saw the dinosaur’s tracking dot close in on the Shield agents, meaning they were almost there, almost gaining on the Foniassaurus. “They’re walking into a trap, Tony.” He practically whispered. “I meant what I said, they’re not going to kill her, she’s too smart.”

“They have to try,” Tony said just as quiet. “We can’t put all those people in danger.”

“Then get them off this island.” Steve’s gaze turned to him again, voice becoming agitated. “Send out an alarm to get them out, before the thing reaches them.”

“I can’t!” Tony ran a hand through his hair. Boy did he want this day to be over, the stress of it was starting to make him feel like pulling every piece of hair out of his head. “I can’t, Steve. If I do that then there’ll be mass panic, every single person here will get scared and run like hell, someone could get hurt or worse. We need to do it carefully, get each person out of here safely and calmly if we’re unable to kill the Foniassaurus.”

“And how exactly can we do that?”

“I’ll think about that later.” Tony sighed. “For now, I just hope Shield has this in the bag.”

Steve just nodded in reply, he wanted to say what he thought, but he didn’t think repeating himself would be the best thing to do, besides, Tony already knew what he thought about the mission. So he kept his mouth shut, instead, he watched as the Shield agents van came to a halt on the screen. Everyone in the room held their breath.

 

 

If Natasha said that she wasn’t nervous getting out of the company’s van, she’d be downright lying. She’d done plenty of missions like this, retrieving humongous dinosaurs, having to kill some wild ones, running through a herd that could have easily crushed her underneath their ginormous feet. But this, this felt a whole lot different. Not only was she clueless as to what was to come with this newly created dinosaur, but she also had Steve’s words replaying in her head. She knew he was right, of course she did, he was a professional when it came to dinosaurs. But she also knew the creature had to be stopped.

Geared up in bullet proof vests, hard leather shoes, and rock solid helmets, each member of the ten soldier team stepped out cautiously into the forest. Matt lead the way in front, as his wife took the back, their most deadly guns held up at the ready. Some of the soldiers had Tasers as back up, some had brought their sharpest knives, some even had grenades strapped to their packs, ready for anything after the news of the dinosaur’s escape had reached them.

Matt kept the tracker at eye level, taking slow, tentative steps through the wet, mucky woodland, feeling his heart beat rising the closer he got to the spot where the dinosaur was lurking. The device began beeping lightly, the red dot flashing faster and faster as Matt lead the team down a slight ditch, stepping into a shallow stream underneath tall, dark trees.

“ _You’re five metres from it!”_ Thor said over the coms, sounding like he was about to be sick from the nerves, even though he was safe in the control room.

Matt held up a hand signalling to the soldiers. “Get ready.” He whispered, more to himself than to the others.

The team split up, four heading around the stream, three walking through the stream, and Matt with two others crept along the edge of the trees. Taking small footsteps forward, guns raised at the ready, the soldiers closed in on the dinosaur who was supposed to be right in front of them, right where a cluster of trees stood.

“Where is it?” one soldier murmured down the coms in apprehension.

“It should be there.” Natasha said calmly, exchanging a look of uneasiness with her husband across the stream.

But there was no sign whatsoever of the creature. Matt held up his hand once more, this time signalling for the team to come to a halt, as they did. The leader of Shield tentatively kept on going, not once letting his finger fall from the trigger, eyes on the trees up ahead. He knew the Foniassaurus was clever, what she’d done to his friends not long ago was no behaviour of any dinosaur he’d seen before, and he had a funny feeling she wasn’t about to be found quite so easily.

His suspicions were right as he came to a stop beside the trees, only the view of more trees, leaves and a muddy ground to be seen. No trace of the Foniassaurus.

“She’s not here.” Matt said to the others, keeping his voice down. There was no way the tracker would be wrong.

“ _Did you say negative on the Foniassaurus?”_ Thor asked over the radio.

“Yeah,” Matt sighed. “Look for yourself, she’s not there.”

“ _She’s got to be there somewhere, Matt.”_ Steve’s voice came over the line, sounding just as stressed as he was. “ _She could be hiding somewhere close by, maybe the trackers off, be careful!_ ”

“There’s no way the trackers off,” Natasha piped in. “Those things are brand new, they’ve not once been wrong.”

“ _And their made by yours truly_.” Tony said over the com, trying to break the tension. It only made everyone roll their eyes as per usual.

“Then why does it say…” Matt began, but something made him stop mid-sentence.

“ _Matt?”_ Steve called.

“Matt, what is it?” Natasha spoke in a hushed tone from a few metres away. “Matt?”

The soldier didn’t answer, instead, he focused on the dim, flashing light he’d spotted out of the corner of his eye. Hastily he got down on his knees in the dirt, reaching over he used one hand to dig through the leaves and mud to get to it, the feeling of dread weighing heavy in the pit of his stomach.

It was obvious what the item was when Matt scooped it out of the ground, and held it up for everyone to see. Natasha cursed out loud, the soldiers looking defeated and just a tiny bit terrified at the prospect of now not knowing where this creature could be.

_“Is that…”_

_“Oh shit!”_

_“How did she do that?”_

Voices nattered through the coms from the control room.

“It’s her tracker.” Matt confirmed, tossing it onto the ground in anger. “Shit!”

“What do we do now?” An agent asked beside Natasha.

“We search for her.” Natasha said, sighing heavily. “She’s not getting away from us.”

 _“Nat, you can’t!”_ Steve practically yelled over the lines. _“That’s even more dangerous than with her tracker in, you don’t know where she is now, she knew the damn thing was in her she could be closer than you think!”_

“Steve, what choice do we have?” Natasha argued back.

“ _I’m with Steve on this, Nat_.” Tony said, suddenly sounding uneasy. “ _Maybe this was a bad idea. She’s fucking crazy smart if she knew where the tracker was, I mean come on!”_

“Stark, don’t you start! You don’t know anything about her!”

“ _Damn it, Nat!”_ Steve shouted, practically begging by now. “ _Just get out of there, please! Please! Just trust me, you’ll have no chance against her!”_

“ _Wait!_ ” Thor butted in, having a lightbulb idea by the sounds of it. “ _You’re forgetting infrared, we can find her through her thermal signature_.”

Tony snorted. “ _Of course, Jesus, can’t believe I forgot about that. I’m losing my mind_.”

“ _Then what are you waiting for,”_ Steve said, sounding worried. “ _Do it, hurry, she could be anywhere near the team_.”

“Ready when you are,” Natasha told them, yanking the small camera that was stuck to her suit, holding it outwards. “Scan through all of them, we’ll each hold the cameras up at different angles.”

And that’s what Thor did. There was a few beeps over the line, then a loud buzz before the infrared map popped up on the control room’s screen, showing the area where Natasha and her team stood amongst the trees. Red figures stood out amongst the blue and the green of the scenery around them, showing exactly where the team were standing.

Thor moved from camera to camera, everyone keeping their eyes peeled for a different kind of red figure amongst the people. But there was nothing. No sign at all of the gigantic dinosaur who had left behind her tracker.

“ _There’s nothing_.” Thor said over the com. _“She’s nowhere in sight_.”

“You sure?” Natasha asked.

“ _Positive, Nat_.” Tony answered, feeling kind of relieved. “ _She must have moved on_.”

“ _What if she hasn’t?”_ Steve said, and Natasha could tell by his voice that he wasn’t happy in the slightest. “ _She still could be nearby, Tony_.”

“But she’s not here now,” Natasha tried to reassure him, tucking her camera back into its pouch and pulling her gun back up in defence. “Look, if it makes you feel better we won’t go searching for her, not yet anyway, we’ll just go back the way we came, we’ll go back to the van and you lot get some damn infrared cameras across the park and find that bitch and _then_ we find her and kill her.”

“ _Good plan, Mrs Murdock_.” Tony saluted, although she couldn’t see him. “ _Maybe you can be the new CEO of this place?_ ”

“Bite me, Stark.”

“ _I don’t bat for your team I’m afraid_.”

Natasha rolled her eyes.

“ _Tony_.” Natasha heard Steve sigh before he turned his attention on her. “ _Just get out of there Nat, please? I have a bad feeling about this_.”

“Yes, mam.” Natasha grinned, hearing Tony and Thor chuckle over the line. “Let’s get out of here then, boys. Matt?” she turned to her husband, finding it odd that he hadn’t said a word during the entire discussion. “Matt?”

Natasha’s husband hadn’t heard her. The team looked over at him, brows furrowing in confusion as to why he was looking up into the trees, as if something was lurking on the branches. Natasha called for him once more, but he held up his hand, gesturing for her to keep quiet. The team stood still, watching, and waiting.

“ _What’s going on?”_ Came Thor’s quiet voice in their ears. “ _Shield?_ ”

Matt didn’t answer them, neither did the rest, following their boss’s order to stay silent. As the occupants in the control room and his wife had bickered over the coms about infrared, Matt had stayed in place, flinching as some form of liquid had dropped straight onto his cheek. At first he’d thought it was just a drop of rain falling out of the leaves above, but after another had fallen in approximately the same place, he took his finger off the trigger of his gun and took a swipe at his face. His eyes widened as he looked down at the thick, red fluid that stained his glove.

He’d thought at first that maybe he was seeing things, or that it might have been from bark or an injured bird. But as his gaze flicked through the trees above him he didn’t see anything but the leaves swaying in the wind, no birds in sight. Matt started feeling anxious when another drop fell onto his chin, followed by another on his shoulder, like the blood was falling from someone, or something that was wounded.

“Where’s that blood coming from?” Natasha whispered, as she noticed the red stains appearing on her husband’s skin.

Then, out of nowhere, they all heard a noise. A distinct, deep growling.

“ _No_. _It can’t be_.” Steve whispered in their ears, before his voice got brasher and panic stricken as another deeper grumble sounded. “ _Get out of there! It’s her! She’s there! Get out!_ ”

Natasha and Matt locked eyes before just behind him something moved, rustling the trees and leaves. Matt, slowly turning on the spot, came face to face with the Foniassaurus who crept out from between the greenery as if disguised amongst it, its humongous jaws just inches from him, revealing its filthy, sharp teeth.

What happened next occurred too fast for anyone to react.

With one quick swipe the Foniassaurus had Matt in its jaws, wrenching him off the ground and swinging him in its grasp. The group yelled and bellowed in terror, scrambling backwards and away from it, falling over one another to get to the other edge of the stream. Suddenly Matt screamed at the top of his lungs, the pain overbearing as the dinosaur bit down hard, bones cracking deafeningly.

Natasha cried in terror at seeing her husband in the creatures jaws, pulling up her gun and pointing with haste. “FIRE!” She screamed frantically, as Matt wend limp.

All of a sudden there were resounding gunshots echoing around the woods, hitting their target, some bouncing off tree trunks, some splitting the leaves. The Foniassaurus gave out a thunderous roar, dropping Matt’s lifeless body onto the sloppy ground, before she took giant steps straight towards the soldiers.

“MATT!” Natasha yelled, grip tightening on her gun, her anger boiling inside her. “Son of a bitch!” she shrieked.

“ _Nat! Get out of the way!”_ She heard Tony shout at her over the coms.

She didn’t take no notice of their shouts on the line, the soldiers scrambling noisily for cover, shots still firing uncontrollably. Natasha held up her own gun once again, pointing it straight at the creature that was coming her way, jaws open, eyes wide in hunger, and she pulled the trigger.

The Foniassaurus roared once more, bullets hitting her from head to feet, bouncing off her skin as if she were bulletproof. Natasha didn’t stop, she screamed until her throat hurt, crashing bullet after bullet at the monster, standing her ground. It took seconds before the Foniassaurus reached her, its teeth baring as it flung itself forward to grab her. Natasha dodged the creature’s jaws, yanking a knife out of her pocket she swung for the dinosaur’s eye, instead slicing it across its nose. The Foniassaurus let out a loud yelp, shaking its head like it would make the pain disappear.

Natasha took the time to start running, shouting orders at the others to keep going.

“ _Jesus, Natasha!”_

“ _Run! Just run!”_

_“Get out of there! Don’t turn around!”_

Natasha ran for her life, the voices of her friends blaring hysterically in her ear. She heard one of her agents let out a stomach-turning cry, then another, then another, each one of her teammates being taken down around her. Natasha fled through the tall trees, trying desperately to stomp out the fear that was taking over, her hands shaking, and heart beating way too fast.

As she came to a clearing she stopped abruptly, her stomach turning at the sight of one of her soldiers on the ground, his body torn in half. She scanned the area as hurriedly as she could, not wasting time in rushing over to the body on the ground and picking up the vast gun that was dropped beside him. With slippery fingers she clicked the lock off, wiping the splatters of blood off the gun’s side with the end of her sleeve.

 _Snap_.

Natasha froze. The sudden eerie silence around her making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, goose bumps crawling over her skin. Then she heard it again, _snap_ , the clear sound of a thin twig breaking under a hefty weight, practically echoing against the quietness of the woods. They must have heard it back at base too, as the voices in her ear, Steve, Tony, Thor, Carol, began telling her to run, run and don’t look back.

Natasha’s grip on the gun tightened. She thought of her husband, dead on the ground not far away from her, of her soldiers who’d lost their lives mercilessly, of the thousands upon thousands of innocent lives on that island that were oblivious to the danger that was unfolding that very minute. She wasn’t going to run, she was going to do her job and fight for those people, no matter the consequences.

Natasha gritted her teeth, slowly taking the gun into her hands. “I’m sorry guys.” She whispered into the com. “I can’t run.”

In a split second Natasha was on her feet, yanking the gun up and pointing it straight at the Foniassaurus who stood right behind her. Before the dinosaur could even get its jaws open, Natasha had pulled the trigger. She cried out in anger, Matt’s face fixed in her mind as she set off bullet after bullet, hitting the dinosaur square in its chest as it gave out an exasperated growl. The shots didn’t even seem to be making a scratch on the creature’s skin, the being roaring in anger not pain.

Natasha didn’t let up. With the cries and shouts of her friends in her ear, Natasha never took her hand off the trigger, not until the very last shell released. As the Foniassaurus dove forward to capture Natasha in her jaws, the officer threw her gun to the side, pulling out her knife. The dinosaur clamped its teeth around her body, Natasha letting out a blood curdling yell as it lifted her into the air, swinging her about as if she were a dog and its toy.

“GO TO HELL, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Natasha screamed, as she dug her knife into the monster’s skin, stabbing holes right along its top jaw.

The Foniassaurus growled at the back of its throat, but didn’t drop her. Natasha could feel the blood draining out of her, her energy dwindling as she continuously pierced the dinosaur anywhere she could reach. But the animal was no match for her. Within seconds the Foniassaurus reopened her jaws and clinched them back down, a nauseating crunch echoing through the control room, Natasha’s heavy breathing abruptly coming to a stop. Then everything went silent, as the sounds of the dinosaur’s heavy footfalls faded on screen.

“Turn it off.”

Tony stared at the screen that still had the cameras connected, Natasha’s bleeding hand just about in view. Other soldier’s dead bodies were strewn across different screens from different cameras on their clothing, all mangled and bloodied from the massacre.

“I SAID TURN IT OFF!” Tony bellowed at the top of his voice, making everyone in the room stare at him, wide eyed and dismayed.

Carol was the first to react, wasting no time in pulling the switch that completely shut down the link to Shields cameras. The screens went black, only the one television to the left showing the park’s map, thousands of red dots scrambling across it. Nobody said a word, too shocked and confused at what had just happened, Tony could practically feel the discomfort in the air and he felt sick, sick to his stomach. He’d just lost two more of his close friends.

Not only had he lost them but so had Thor, who was holding his head in his hands, knuckles turning white from digging his fingers hard into his skull. Carol had lost her best friend, being Natasha’s maid of honour at her wedding was one of the highlights of her life, the wedding that happened only months ago. And Tony didn’t even want to imagine how Danny would feel when he found out, first Luke and Jessica, and now Matt, Danny’s three friends from childhood all gone in one day.

And Steve. Tony sucked in a breath, he didn’t want to turn around and have to face him. Too afraid that Steve would hate him even more, hate him for letting this happen, for not listening to him and stopping the Shield team from leaving the building. It was all his fault, all of this, he should have never agreed to have this dinosaur created.

“Tony?”

The engineer broke out of his thoughts when he heard Steve’s low voice from behind him. He expected to see him upset, angry, anything that showed how he was feeling at that moment. Steve had lost his friends too, Natasha was like a sister to him. But what he got was a blank stare, Steve looked at him with wide, watery eyes like he’d just seen a ghost, the colour drained from his skin and hands visibly shaking by his sides.

“Steve.” Tony whispered, without thinking he extended his arm to brush a hand over Steves. “Steve. I’m so…”

“Don’t.” Steve said firmly. “It’s not your fault.”

Tony sighed, running a hand through his sticky hair, noting that his own hands were trembling irrepressibly. “It was Steve, I should never have…”

“It’s not.” Steve said, surprising Tony by taking his hand. “It was their choice to go, not yours, don’t do this to yourself.”

“I just…”

“Tony.” Steve warned, giving his hand a tight squeeze. “Please, just stop.”

Tony noticed the single tear that slipped from the blonde’s left eye, but Steve soon covered it up by rubbing his free arm across his face, visibly trying to stop himself from letting his emotions get the best of him. He was hurting on the inside, he wanted to scream and shout until his throat hurt but he knew he couldn’t, he knew they couldn’t waste any more time. His other hand still held onto Tony’s like it were a lifeline.

“Look,” Steve said, voice quieting as all eyes in the room were on them, everyone waiting for an order. “We can’t stop now.” He began. “Natasha and Matt would want us to fight on. Those people down there, they’re in danger, we have to make sure we get every single one of them to safety. That’s all that matters now. We get those people off this island, then we kill that monster once and for all.”

“We’re with you!” Thor suddenly said, face contorted in complete rage at what he’d just witnessed, he got up from his chair to stand beside them. “Steve’s right, whatever it is you need us to do, boss, we’ll do it.”

The employers in the room all nodded, some piping up in agreement. Tony suddenly felt a whole lot better than he had seconds ago as his eyes travelled across the room, his workers looking at him with pure determination on their faces, Carol standing by her station with brows furrowed and hands fisted by her side like she was ready for war.

“What shall we do next, Mr. Stark?” she asked, willing to do anything that would have made Natasha proud.

Tony looked at her, then at Thor, then to Steve, and nodded. “We start by putting up defences around the park and finding the Fon… whatever it’s called, everyone get a different camera angle up on your screens and find that damn dinosaur. Thor, you do the search through infrared. We can’t waste any more time.”

The room suddenly erupted with noise, the sound of typing away on keyboards and the buzzing of the electrics filling the air.

“Electric fences!” Thor squeaked as he practically ran back to his seat, instantly typing away speedily on his computer.

Tony shared a smile with Steve as they followed the IT whiz, their hands slipping apart.

“What about them?” Tony asked as he watched Thor put up the fences system on his screen. “You had them on right?” he said worriedly.

“Of course!” Thor scoffed, like he was appalled by the idea. “Why would I forget such a thing? What I’m trying to say Anthony, is that the electric fences aren’t at full capacity.”

“Why the hell not?”

“They’d kill smaller dinosaurs.” Steve answered, smiling as Thor chuckled away.

“Exactly!” He boomed, fingers skidding across the keyboard. “We may have different fences located around the park, but their all for the dinosaurs that are less… shall we say carnivorous.”

“All the meat eaters are put into separate cages.” Steve said, getting where Thor was going.

“Precisely.” Thor nodded. “But now that the Foniassaurs is out there, we have no choice but to turn up the volts on every fence that covers the fields and outskirts of the park. Just another way of keeping her away from the main park.”

Tony nodded slowly. “But that would kill the other dinosaurs if they touch the fences.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore.” Steve said in all seriousness. “Keeping those people safe is more important.”

Tony sent him a small smile. “Yeah, I know.” He turned to Thor whose typing had come to a halt. “Turn them up to their highest level, Thor.”

Thor grinned. “Yes, sir!” he shouted as he struck a button a little too hard. “Let’s hope our little friend gets a nice shock when she tries to get past the fences!”

“That all depends on what she’s made of.” Steve mumbled under his breath, sighing heavily as he walked to the back of the room.

Thor didn’t hear him, moving on to searching through the cameras to try and find the creature. Tony had heard him though and he watched with a heavy heart as Steve walked away, resting against the wall at the back of the dimly lit room, looking like he had been through hell and back.

He knew Steve was no good with emotions, he hated letting people see him upset or angry, he’d always been one to hide himself away instead of letting the tears flow or shouting out loud what he was feeling. It’s one thing they both have in common. Tony was close with Natasha and Matt, but Steve was even more so, Natasha and Matt were like close family to him, so he couldn’t even imagine how he must have been feeling seeing what he did minutes ago. After yanking out his phone and typing a quick text, Tony ambled on over to the younger man.

“Hey.” Tony said quietly as he joined Steve by the wall. “We’ll kill that thing, no matter what, okay? We’ll do it for our friends.”

Steve only nodded, eyes glued to one spot on the floor.

“Steve.” Tony practically whispered. “I am sorry.”

Steve took a deep breath. “Don’t be.” He said softly. “I should have put my foot down, I shouldn’t have let them walk out that door.”

“Damn, Steve, don’t say that, it’s not your fault.” Tony exhaled, realising he was starting to sound just like Steve. “We’re both as bad as each other, huh?”

A smile tugged at the edge of the blonde’s lips. “Yeah, nothing’s changed, has it?”

Tony smiled. “Nah, feels like only yesterday you were bossing me about, telling me how to hand feed those baby dinosaurs with the horn thingies.”

Steve laughed lightly, making Tony’s smile widen at the sight. “They’re called Triceratops, Tony, and you were throwing the food at their mouth.”

“I would have rather kept my hand, thank you.”

Steve grinned. “I’m sure she would have spat it back out, considering she’s vegetarian.”

Tony laughed, nodding as he remembered Steve telling him that when he’d thrown one of the dead rats at the animal. “Yeah, well, I just taste that good.” The blonde shook his head with a toothy smile. “It’s good to see you smile, you know.”

Steve bit his bottom lip and looked down, making Tony wonder if his word vomit had once again messed everything up. Thankfully, it seemed to have done the complete opposite this time.

“I needed that,” Steve said, sighing softly before looking up again at the engineer, a small smile still on his lips. “Was good to forget things even for only a few seconds. Thanks, Tony.”

Tony smiled back. “She’ll be glad we’re carrying on, you know. Glad that we’re not giving up.”

“Yeah,” Steve could imagine Natasha now, yelling at them to get their asses into gear and get a move on. “I don’t… I don’t want her and Matt’s death to be for nothing, Tony. Nor Luke and Jessicas. We need to get that dinosaur, and we need to keep those visitors safe, for them.”

“We will.” Tony said confidently, looking Steve straight in the eyes. “We’ll not give up until that thing is dead, there’s no way I’m letting it get away with killing our friends, no way.”

“I know.”

The two stared at one another, smiling a little. In the moment Tony just wanted to take Steve in his arms and not let go, he needed it, and Steve probably did to. It had been so long since he’d been this close to the younger man, he started to think that maybe Steve might forgive him after all.

Before he could summon up the courage to go that little bit further, the two were interrupted by the doors loudly slamming shut. The entire room stopped what they were doing at the lurid bang, all eyes turning to Bruce who stood there with cheeks as red as tomatoes, looking like he’d just done the most embarrassing thing in his entire life. He held up his hands and started apologising, avoiding all eye contact as he made his way over to Steve and Tony, more than relieved once the workers went back to doing their jobs.

“Hi.” Bruce said to the pair as he approached them, the two sending him a small wave in return. “Sorry uh… sorry about the um…”

“Flashy entrance?” Tony chuckled, patting Bruce on the shoulder. “Not like you, Brucey.”

Bruce just blushed, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

“I uh, got your text.” He said to Tony, looking between him and the dinosaur trainer. “What’s the emergency?” he asked, noticing the hasty typing and rushed chatting between the employers in the room.

Suddenly, all the colour in Tony’s face drained. The engineer gazed over at Steve who looked at the scientist with saddened eyes. Bruce didn’t know what had happened minutes ago, he didn’t even know that the Foniassaurus had escaped. He’d made sure that the only people who knew about everything were the ones at the scene, Shield, and the employers locked away in the control room. Tony’s heart sank once more.

“Uh… Bruce, I um… I think we’d better go out into the hall.” Tony said to his friend, who didn’t like the tone of Tony’s voice one little bit.

Bruce merrily nodded, letting Tony lead him out into the brightly lit hallway, Steve following behind. Once they were there Bruce could tell something bad had happened by the serious look on Tony’s face, and he was shocked to find that Steve was trying his hardest to hold back tears. He’d never seen his friends in this state before.

“What’s going on?” Bruce asked quietly.

Tony ran a hand through his hair and chewed on his bottom lip, deciding that the best way to do it was to just let it all slip out. “The dinosaur’s escaped, the one you and Hank created, it killed Jessica and Luke and Shield went after it, the whole team was killed, including Natasha and Matt. We’re currently trying to track it down and come up with a solution to get everyone off the island safely.” He heaved a sigh.

Bruce just stood there like he’d been stunned. His eyes flickered from Tony to Steve, mouth agape, not quite able to speak. Tony’s words repeated in his head over and over, and out of the blue he just began to laugh. Tony and Steve shared a look of confusion.

“Very funny guys,” Bruce chuckled, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. “You got me there… very creative… a little over the top though… I mean…”

By this point Bruce had realised that the other two weren’t laughing. In fact, Steve looked even gloomier than he had minutes before, and Tony, well, by now he’d have been laughing along at the ridiculous joke, but his face was more serious than it had ever been.

“You’re not… joking?” Bruce asked, merely a whisper. Tony shook his head. “T-The Foniassaurus… it’s escaped?” Steve nodded. “Nat, Matt… Jess and Luke… they’re…” The two men nodded.

The engineer saw the exact moment it hit Bruce like a hard slap to the face. The scientist’s face turned as white as a sheet of paper, his eyes wide in shock, his hands started trembling as he pulled off his glasses and put a hand to his head. Luckily Steve was there as the next thing they knew Bruce’s knees had a mind of their own, and the blonde dashed over to catch him, holding him up as Tony ran across the hall to retrieve a chair for him to sit in.

“My god…” Bruce whimpered, as his two friends lowered him onto the seat. “My god… my god…” he stuttered. “What have we done… it’s my fault… oh god…”

“Bruce,” Steve kneeled in front of the older man, placing a hand on his knee gently for support. “It’s not your fault, none of it. It’s nobody’s fault.”

Bruce shook his head back and forth wildly. “No, no, it’s my fault! Mine! I should… god I should never have agreed to make that damn thing!” he let out a quiet sob, before a single tear trailed down his cheek. “Nat… god she’s dead because of me… and her husband… God, Jess and Luke were planning on having kids!”

The other two stayed silent for a short while, letting Bruce silently cry into his hands to get it out of his system. But Tony knew that now wasn’t the time to mourn, not for any of them, because as they stood in that hallway the Foniassaurus was still on the move.

“Bruce.” Tony said, as he joined Steve on the floor. The scientist scrubbed at his eyes before looking down at his friend, feeling like his whole world had just come crumbling down on top of him. “Listen, we haven’t got time to waste, we haven’t got time to mourn, okay? I know that sounds harsh but there’s thousands of people out there in danger, and they’re our main priority right now. It’s what our friends would want.”

Bruce nodded slowly, wiping at his cheeks. “Yes… yes, of course.” He said softly. “I-I will help in any way I can… anything you need.”

“We need to bring down the dinosaur,” Tony began. “We’ll get the people off this island but we can’t leave that thing here, it’s too dangerous, so we have to kill it.”

“No, I understand,” Bruce said as he slipped his glasses back on, hands still quivering. “God, just kill it, it should never have… it should never have been made in the first place, I should never have agreed with Hank.”

“Forget about that now, Bruce.” Steve said. “We just have to concentrate on finding a way to kill her.”

Tony nodded in agreement. “That’s why you need to tell Steve what genetics you created her from.”

Steve gazed over at Tony, both wondering if Bruce would finally tell them what the creature was made of. After months of secrets and classified documents being hidden away in safes, only two geneticists knowing the true identity of the man-made dinosaur, Bruce didn’t even hesitate to tell them then and there.

“She’s not just made of dinosaur genes.” Bruce croaked, not caring in the slightest anymore, not when his friend’s lives had been taken by his and Hank’s creation, not when thousands more could be in danger on that island. “She’s made of a few dinosaurs like Therizinosaurus, some abelisaurs genes which gave her the spiky osteoderms, the T-rex of course, the giganotosaurus, but also some reptilian genes, reptiles Hank thought would make her stronger and more interesting than the T-Rex.” Bruce sighed, rubbing a hand over his sweaty brow. “I didn’t quite agree with him about the reptile genes, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Reptiles?” Steve’s brows furrowed, interest peeked at the new information. “Which ones?”

Bruce swallowed the lump in his throat, and just went for it. “There’s uh… there’s snake DNA in her, which explains her large jaw… uh… cuttlefish… she had cuttlefish DNA…”

“Cuttlefish?” Steve cut across, eyes widening as he put two and two together. “Why on earth… Hank wanted her to have cuttlefish DNA?”

Bruce nodded. Steve’s concerned tone of voice didn’t go unnoticed by Tony. “What’s so bad about a fish? This dinosaur a good swimmer or something?”

“No,” Steve bit his lip, thinking back to the incident with Shield, replaying every step in his mind from the conversations to the camera angles. “It inherited something a lot more dangerous.” He said surely.

Bruce groaned, knowing exactly what he was going to say. “The cuttlefish can change colour of its skin.” He said to Tony, who by now was confused. All the dinosaur lingo was starting to make his head spin. “It can blend into its surroundings, be invisible if it wanted.”

Tony’s jaw dropped. “So, you’re telling me, this damn dinosaur can play hide and fucking seek!”

“She already has, Tony.” Steve said. “Remember when Matt found her tracker? She came out of nowhere, just walked out from amongst the trees like she were…”

“Hiding.” Tony breathed in deeply, starting to put the puzzle together. “Holy shit, she was blending in and watching the fucking team!”

Hearing all this Bruce put his head in his hands. “I can’t believe this is happening.” He mumbled into his lap. “God, this is all my fault.”

Tony ignored him, mind already boggled. “So, so that doesn’t explain how we couldn’t find her, Steve.”

Steve frowned. “You’re right.” Even though they’d had her tracker, she was nowhere to be found through infrared, the one thing that could have told them where she was. Steve had a bad feeling sitting in the pit of his stomach. “Bruce?”

The scientist looked up, guilt etched across his face. “Was there any other reptile genes in her?” Steve asked, already dreading the answer.

“Yes.” Bruce stammered. “A tree frog.”

Tony could see the clogs turning in Steve’s head as he tried to work out how exactly the genes of a tree frog fit into the Foniassaurus’s DNA. The blonde wasn’t too familiar with the cold-blooded animal, but he had an inkling of some of its traits. He put the puzzle pieces together within seconds once he’d listed the tree frog’s abilities in his head, dread washing over him like a cascade of freezing cold water.

Steve turned to Bruce who knew something wasn’t right just by his change of expressions. “The tree frog,” Steve began, Tony listening in closely. “It has the ability to hide its own thermal temperature, right?” Bruce nodded slowly, already knowing what was coming. “We couldn’t find the Foniassaurus on the infrared, but she was right there in front of our eyes.”

“Woh, woh, woh!” Tony butted in, waving his arms about like he couldn’t believe what Steve was saying. “Are you trying to tell me, that this god damn dinosaur can control her freaking thermal temperature too?” Steve nodded in reply. “Oh hell no.”

“I knew it was a bad idea!” Bruce huffed, threading his hands through his hair in frustration. “I _told_ Hank not to use the damn reptiles!”

“You wait until I get my hands on Hank!” Tony growled. “When he gets back from vacation I’ll ring his freaking-,”

“Tony, now’s not the time.” Steve said calmly. “We need to figure out what to do next.”

Bruce hummed in agreement. “Steve’s right, we can’t pick her out on the infrared, she’s camouflaged and has a tendency to kill, we have to figure out a plan and fast!”

“We have to get those people off this island.” Steve added, regarding Tony in all seriousness. The engineer looking like he was about to rip his hair out in annoyance.

Tony groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. “Right, right,” he said, taking a deep breath. “We need to uh… we need to get those people as far away from the outskirts as we can, the Foni-…mabob is most probably still a way away from the main park right?”

Steve shrugged. “If she’s exploring I suppose she still would be, she’s new to this place so I’d say there’s a high chance. She’ll definitely see some other dinosaurs around so that might slow her down. Hopefully the electric fences will help a lot too.”

“Okay.” Tony sighed, hands on hips. “Right, good.” He said, striking up an idea as quickly as humanly possible. “I’ve got a plan, and it’s going to involve a lot of help from the employees and a lot of patience from the visitors. Let’s hope there’s no angry customers out there.”

Steve held his gaze and exhaled. “Better them being angry than dead.”

Tony couldn’t have agreed more. “Let’s get this done. Time to tell the others the bad news about the dinosaur who likes to play hide and seek.” He said, before making his way back into the control room with the other two in tow.

But as he reached out for the handle of the door he suddenly came to an abrupt stop. The engineer turned to the other two with an expression of pure dread, obviously coming to a realisation. He’d been so wrapped up in everything that was happening that his mind was only stuck on the one thing, other things forgotten. He felt his chest tighten and his voice crack as he spoke to Steve.

“Peter’s out there.”


	6. The Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late updates guys! I've been busy with work and going here and there (including to see infinity war... anyone else want to throw a punch at Thanos?)  
> My updating will be crappy, I've got so much going on! Sorry! :(
> 
> Thanks so much for your awesome comments on the previous chapters! <3

“Wade, there’s no way I’m letting you in the driver’s seat.” Peter deadpanned.

After running away from Loki that afternoon the first thing Peter and Wade did was make another round on all the fastest rides, before hiding themselves in the corner of the donut shop and stuffing their faces with chocolate and icing deliciousness. Wade thought it would be a good idea to get back on the rollercoasters afterwards, Peter literally had to drag him away by the scruff of his neck. He didn’t want a repeat of the last time Wade went on a rollercoaster with a full stomach.

So, being the sensible one of the two, Peter had found a ride that didn’t include a speed of over twenty miles per hour. They were currently in the queue for said ride, which included a dirt track, a jeep, and a lot of wandering dinosaurs. Peter was already having second thoughts the nearer they got to the front.

“Oh, come on, sugar dumpling!” Wade whined at the top of his voice, earning quite a few funny looks from the other tourists. “I swear I won’t touch any big red buttons.”

Peter snorted. “I’m pretty sure that’s a lie.” He said, rolling his eyes as Wade grabbed his arm and started pulling on his sleeve. “You and jeeps do not go well together, Wade.”

“That was one time.” Wade grinned at the memory. “That fence was practically yelling to be crashed into.”

Peter couldn’t help but smile. “Didn’t mean you had to drive into it.”

“Mr. Bubblebutt will be thanking me one day, he has a nice, new fence now.” Wade said proudly, going from pulling on Peter’s sleeve to hugging his arm. “So can I sit in the driver’s seat? I promise not to fart in bed anymore if you let me!”

Peter chuckled. “That’s _very_ tempting.” He said with a grin, and Wade knew he’d totally just won him over from the cheeky smirk etched across his face. “Damn it, Wade. Fine, fine, you can get in the driver’s seat, just don’t you _dare_ touch anything!”

“Whoo!” Wade punched the air before leaning down to kiss Peter sloppily on his cheek.

Peter cringed and rubbed at the spot with his sleeve. “Don’t forget the promise you made me.”

Wade took Peter’s hand in his and looked at him all sweet and innocent. “What promise?”

Ten minutes later the two were seated in a glass top jeep that was so brightly painted with dinosaurs that it made their eyes hurt, Peter sat himself down in the passenger’s side, and Wade excitedly got behind the wheel. He was just a tad disappointed when he found that the steering wheel was being controlled and he had no way of moving it by himself.

“How am I supposed to pretend to drive now?” Wade screeched as the jeep took off slowly through the field. “Being the fake driver is not as fun as I thought it would be.” He sulked, prodding the wheel. “Doesn’t even have a horn.”

Peter smiled, secretly relieved as hell that there were no buttons and leavers his boyfriend could mess around with. God only knew the trouble he’d get them in if there were. But within minutes Wade was practically bouncing up and down in his seat, steering wheel be damned. The jeep had taken off slowly into the open field just in front of the small building, and was soon entering the dinosaur’s territory through the massive, brown gate.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

“I need to call him, right now!”

Tony was having a total meltdown. After everything that had happened that morning, to sorting out the parks electrical fences and formulating a plan to capture and kill the Foniassaurus, making sure Peter wasn’t dinosaur bait had quickly pushed to the front of his mind. The engineer virtually trudged a hole into the floor of the hallway of the control room, Steve standing calmly by the wall, as he held his phone to his ear.

It kept ringing and ringing, the high pitched drone making Tony want to fling the device at the wall the longer it went on. He growled loudly before hanging up, jabbing his fingers on the screen to try again.

“Why isn’t he answering?” Tony sighed, running a hand through his tousled hair.

 “He’s out in the park, Tony,” Steve answered him, trying his best to keep his tone of voice composed. “He’s probably enjoying himself with his boyfriend, just keep trying.”

Tony just grunted in response before looking for Loki’s name and trying him too. To no avail not even Thor’s brother who loved his phone more than life itself was answering, and Tony wanted to throw his own against a wall. With one last attempt he tried his nephew again.

“ _Uncle Tony_?”

“PETER!” Tony yelled down the phone, making Steve jump away from the wall. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, don’t you kids answer your God damn phones anymore? Not even Loki’s answering his phone and he’s glued to the damn thing!” he squealed, voice rising higher and higher with each word.

“ _Alright, alright, jeez, Loki’s not even here!”_

“What do you mean Loki’s not even there?” Tony yelled, feeling his blood boil.

“ _We may have… possibly ran away from him_.” Peter mumbled.

“URGH!” Tony growled, rubbing a hand down his face. Kids. He was never having them. “That doesn’t matter now anyway, listen Peter…” a loud crackling suddenly shot through the phone. “Peter?”

“ _Tony… I… signal’s getting… urgh… stupid pho… going to… middle of nowhe…”_

“Peter?” Tony stilled, cursing the technology gods for not inventing good phone signals. “Peter? Listen to me, listen you have to get yourselves to the information centre okay? You need to get here, right now!”

“ _Wha… I… Tony?... We’re on a ride… we… hear… not… signal…”_

“Peter?” Tony shouted down the phone in annoyance, before the line went completely dead and all he could hear was a high pitched buzz. Tony stared down at his phone for what felt like hours before looking up and sharing a concerned look with Steve.

“We have to stop all the rides.” He said before storming into the control centre, Bruce and Steve hot on his tail. “Thor!” Tony yelled, making everyone in the room look around. “Stop the rides and get everyone to the Information Centre, now!”

“But Anthony, you said…”

“I know what I said!” Tony snapped impatiently, clutching his phone a little too tight. “Peter’s on a damn ride! Now get every single ride back in and contact every single employee at the park, tell them to make announcements to the guests to make their way to the information centre as quickly and calmly as possible.”

“What are the employees going to tell them if they ask why, Tony?” Steve inquired from behind the man. “You can’t say there’s a dangerous dinosaur on the loose.”

Tony sighed, rubbing a sore spot on his forehead. “Right… yeah um…”

“We could tell them there’s been an electric fault with the rides.” Bruce suggested, shrugging his shoulders and looking away shyly as everyone stared at him. “Just a thought.”

“Bruce, that’s a good and very believable idea.” Tony said with a snap of his fingers. “You heard him Thor, tell them to let the guests know there’s an electrical fault with one of the rides and it’s causing interruptions with the rest of the park, and make up some big lie about Main Street being the only safe place to stay whilst we fix it up.”

Thor grinned and gave a mock salute. “Right away, boss.”

The blonde man got straight to it and began dialling up numbers across the park, Carol jumping in minutes later to help out as best as she could. As that was going on Tony and Steve sat back and watched the map of the island on the big screen, while the rest of the crew continued to search for the murderous dinosaur through infrared. It didn’t take too long as within minutes, once Thor had finished all his calls, an employee practically dove out of his chair and pointed at the screen.

“Sir!” he shouted, gaining everyone’s attention. “The Foniassaurus!” 

Everyone’s gaze instantly landed on the large, red dot that was moving extremely slow on the screen.

“It’s just outside the Omnivore’s terrain.” Steve whispered beside the engineer. “Tony, one of the emergency exit gates has been opened, she’s gotten through the electric fence!”

The two shared a look of horror, coming to the realisation that this was going to be as hard and dangerous as Steve had predicted. Tony turned to Thor. “How long will it take for all those people to get to Main Street?”

“The employees are doing their best, sir, they’ve all been told it’s an emergency.” Thor answered. “It’ll take minutes.”

“Good.” Tony sighed, eyes never leaving the shape on screen. “I think it’s about time we evacuated.”

Steve let out a quiet sigh of relief beside him. “That’s the best thing you’ve said all day.”

“What’s the plan?” Carol pipped in, crossing her arms over her chest and looking like she was ready for a fight.

“As soon as every guest and employee is together, we need to make an announcement over the speakers.” Tony began, starting to pace. “We do not tell them there’s an escaped dinosaur or like Steve said there’ll be mass panic, we have to stick to the electrical fault story.”

Steve nodded in agreement. “We can say there’s a chance the power could shut down.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony agreed, noticing that Thor was already writing up a speech on his computer. “Carol could you ring the boats? Get every single one to come into the port for pickups.”

Carol bobbled, before sprinting back to her station to get on it.

“Tony,” Steve stepped in, as Tony thought of how he was going to find Peter in all this mess. “You know a lot of guests will be difficult, they’d want to take their things with them, maybe they split up with their friends and want to find them, it’s not going to be easy persuading them to evacuate the island.”

Tony groaned, tapping his phone against his leg. “I guess we’ll just have to add that if the fences go down then dinosaurs will be set free.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Yeah, great way to avoid panic.”

“Or maybe we can just get Peter’s boyfriend to scare them onto the boats.” He joked, finally starting to feel like there was some kind of plan coming together, before that red dot on the screen got any closer to a very large buffet.

Unfortunately for Tony, his plan got a little side tracked when his phone began to ring. He took a peep at the screen and Peter’s name flashed across it. Tony felt relief flood him before he swiped his thumb across his phone and answered the call, full on bawling down the receiver.

“Peter?! Where are you?”

 Tony’s face turned as white as a sheet of paper in that instant, Steve holding his breath, as ear-piercing screams blared from the phone.

“TONY!... HELP!... WE… DON… TON… DINOSA-“

There was a loud crash of something that sounded like wood breaking, followed by more screams that sounded like Peter and Wade, before the familiar echo of a dinosaur’s resounding roar echoed through the room. And then the line went dead.

“Tony.” Steve called him softly and put a hand in his, before lifting a finger to point at the large screen.

Everyone in the room followed his gaze and there were gasps, eyes widening in terror, as the Foniassaurus moved around on the spot. But that’s not what caught their attention, as right next to the Foniassaurus were two other dots in the shape of people, evidently struggling for their lives.

“Peter.” Tony whispered, before he let go of Steve’s hand and ran for the door.

Twenty minutes earlier, Peter and Wade were enjoying their jeep ride.

“I thought we were supposed to see dinosaurs on this tour, Petey.” Wade deadpanned, flattening his face against the window of the vehicle. “I see grass, trees, trunks, fences, even bugs, hell is that a rabbit?”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Wade, we’ve been out here for less than ten minutes, be patient.”

“I swear that was a rabbit.”

Peter sighed heavily, sitting back in his seat and looking up at the sky through the glass roof. If he was being honest, and he wasn’t going to tell Wade, it wasn’t exactly what he’d pictured either. Before they’d hopped into the jeep the young employer, who spoke like he was high on helium, had blabbed on enthusiastically about the gigantic dinosaurs they’d be able to see on the ride. So far, there’d been zilch dinosaurs.

Peter was just a tad bit tempted to try and pick the lock on the door and jump out, maybe go on a little hunt of his own and try to find some of those long neck dinosaurs he’d seen in the movies. There’d be no doubt in his mind that Wade would happily tag along. He opened one eye to peak over at his boyfriend, who was now rubbing one hand down the glass window as if he were petting a dog. Peter smiled to himself before leaning all the way back and shutting his eyes again.

It was seconds before he was dragged out of his sleepy state by Wade’s loud gasp. Peter sighed and opened his eyes once again expecting to see a couple of rabbits hoping along the grass, but as he followed Wade’s gaze his eyes landed on something that was a whole lot bigger than a bunny. Peter jumped up in his seat, leaning across the seat and practically sitting in Wade’s lap to get a glance at the dinosaur moving close to the fence.

“It’s an ankylosaurs!” Peter grinned, watching as the gigantic creature wrenched a large chunk of grass into its mouth.

“Bless you.” Wade chortled, pressing his face into the glass. “Can we go pet it?”

Peter snorted. “No we can’t go pet it, Wade.”

“Why not?” Wade smirked, turning to Peter with a wicked glint in his eyes. “I say we go pet it and spring this joint.”

“Wade, we are not-,”

Before Peter could utter another word, the jeeps window was open and his boyfriend was leaping out of the moving vehicle like he was starring in the great escape.

“WADE!” Peter growled, leaning out of the open door as Wade did some stretches on the grass. “Get back in here now!”

Wade held up a hand, which silenced Peter and made him even more irritated to say the least. “My dear, sweet Peter, you cannot tell me you are sitting there not thinking about getting out of that car and exploring the Jurassic jungle.”

Peter gave a roll of his eyes. Wade was right as usual, but he wasn’t going to admit that out loud or he’ll never hear the end of it. The teen gazed to his left, then to his right, no dinosaurs in sight but the one that hadn’t spotted them just a few meters away, and before Peter could change his mind and tell himself that this was the stupidest decision he’d ever made, he was yanking his backpack onto his shoulders and hopping to the ground.

“That’s my boy!” Wade hollered.

“Wade, shut up!” Peter warned, as he strolled towards him, keeping an eye on the Ankylosaurs. “I swear to God if we get trampled on because of your stupid idea I’m going to kill you!”

Wade frowned and thought hard. “How? I’d already be dead.”

Peter sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just keep quiet, and follow me.”

Thankfully Wade did just that. Seconds later the two were trailing after the omnivore, ducking as low as they could, and freezing like a couple of statues when the dinosaur’s eyes glanced their way.

“No wonder they’re extinct,” Wade would say. “He can’t even see two human shaped blobs following him.”

It was true. They kneeled in the grass for almost five minutes watching the dinosaur eat grass and swing its enormous tail back and forth, and not once did it seemed bothered by the fact that the two were so close by. It became apparent that the dinosaur wasn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon either, by the way it was chomping down on every tiny grain of the green stuff, and Wade was getting bored by just watching it.

“It’s like watching the discovery channel.” Wade mumbled, his eyes following the Ankylosaur’s tail swish one way then the other. “Hey,” he said suddenly. “Your uncle should really see about getting those jeeps checked out…”

Peter sighed, finally turning away from the creature in front of him. “Wade,” he began. “Nobody expects the guests here to be so stupid as to jump out of a moving vehicle, especially into a field full of dangerous _dinosaurs_.”

Wade hummed. “Well, at least the doors have locks.”

“Hey! He’s moving!” Peter perked up, shaking his boyfriend’s arm to get his attention. “Look! He’s going through that gap in the fence.”

The two followed the dinosaur with their eyes as it moved slowly through the fence, its loud stomps echoing, and the ground shaking considerably.

“Come on!” Wade grinned excitedly, grabbing a hold of Peter’s hand and yanking him off the ground. “Let’s go!”

“What?” Peter almost shrieked, pulling Wade back before he could take another step. “We are _not_ following that thing in there, Wade!”

Wade pouted. “But why?”

Peter gave him the best ‘are you kidding me?’ look he could muster up. “Take a good look, idiot.” he said, pointing in the direction of the dinosaur’s trail.

Wade glimpsed over, just as the dinosaur went out of their sight. He immediately knew what Peter was talking about, because with a second glance the older man could see that on the other side of the fence it didn’t exactly look alluring. It was dark for one thing, like all the trees had closed in on each other and created a spooky tunnel, and not to mention the fog floating across the ground and the creepy sounds of birds or whatever it was reaching their ears.

But, Wade was bored.

“What’s the matter, Petey? Scared of the dark?” he grinned. “Don’t you worry, I’ll protect you from the big, bad dinosaur.” he said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. “We could even make out under the scary, decomposing tree I see over there.”

Peter rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time that day. “It’s not the trees I’m worried about, Wade!” he whined, wanting to hit Wade’s head against one of them to get some sense into him. “We don’t know what dinosaurs are through there!”

Wade snorted. “These are all veggie dinos remember?” he poked the side of Peter’s head. “They wouldn’t let us go anywhere near those steak loving big boys, you said it yourself. _Wade, there’s no meat eaters in there, they’re all just vegetarians so we’re safe and won’t be chased around for our yummy tasting_ -,”

“Okay, okay!” Peter cut him off, pushing him aside and stomping towards the gap in the fence. “Let’s just go! I’ll do anything at this rate to shut you up!”

Wade smirked. “Anything?”

“Wade!”

Of course, Wade totally regretted persuading Peter to go in there a few minutes later.

“What the fuck was that?”

Wade and Peter were sitting up against a tree in the darkened woodland, far enough from two Ankylosaurs they’d come across not long after they’d stepped between the gate. They were quietly discussing what outfits would look best on them, a suit or a ballerina dress, before they heard a loud, thunderous rumble, the ground shaking underneath them.

“I have no idea.” Peter answered Wade. “Maybe it’s a Brachiosaurus?”

“A Braciowhatapuss?”

“A long neck,” he said, feeling another shake from the earth. “You know, the one’s you said could make a pretty bow with their necks.”

“Oh,” Wade chortled. “They don’t eat extremely good looking humans do they?”

“No,” Peter said, feeling the ground tremble some more. “They’re vegetarians.”

“They’d be so boring at a barbeque.”

BANG.

Peter and Wade jumped out of their skin as a deafening boom sounded behind them, like the sound of an extremely big tree hitting the floor. They weren’t the only ones who’d noticed, as the Ankylosaurs made a run for it through the trees and out of sight, and Peter and Wade were left staring at the spot where the noise had come from.

“Pete, honey bear?” Wade whispered, as brash, booming stomps headed their way as they both stood. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”

Peter gulped, feeling goosebumps decorate his entire body as more trees cracked, the earth moved and whatever it was was getting nearer and nearer, as if it knew they were there. “Um Wade… You’re not the only one,” he whispered back. “I think now’s a good time to get the hell out of here.”

But it was too late. The stomping quickened and the ground practically split beneath their feet, before the trees metres from them were ripped from the dirt as a ginormous dinosaur sprung through them, it’s black, beady eyes immediately landing on the two men. It froze. The forest suddenly felt like a graveyard as the creature stood silently still, eyeing them up as if deciding which one to take down first. Peter and Wade shook in pure fear, wishing they’d stayed in the damn jeep.

“Peter,” Wade spoke as quietly as possible. “Please tell me that’s not the big dude.”

“I-It’s not a T-Rex,” Peter stuttered. “I-I don’t know what the actual _fuck_ that is Wade!”

They didn’t need a dinosaur encyclopaedia to know that whatever it was was looking them up and down like they were his lunch, and it didn’t take long for the thing to decide it was hungry. In a split second the dinosaur went from silently watching to making a racket as its jaws opened wide and he let out a blood curdling roar, almost sending Peter and Wade flying backwards.

Peter didn’t waste any time in getting them the hell out of there. “Run!” he screeched, seizing Wade’s jacket and pulling him along.

Wade didn’t need to be told twice. The couple spun around and were running for their lives before the dinosaur took its first step towards them, hot on their tails. Peter’s heart thumped wildly against his chest as they ran like the wind deeper into the forest, having no clue as to where they were going, only knowing they had to find somewhere, anywhere where the dinosaur couldn’t get them.

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Wade screamed in panic as they jumped over fallen logs and dodged branches, Wade pushing Peter further ahead to shield him. “Run Peter, fucking run!”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Peter yelled, ducking under a thick branch that almost whacked him in the face.

The crashing sound of the Foniassaurus was right behind them, its heavy breathing so close they could feel it on the back of their necks. Neither of them wanted to turn, too afraid that if they did the creature would be way too close for comfort.

Peter began to panic as the dinosaur let out another piercing roar, he could feel Wade’s hand on his back giving him a push, his own panic evident as he began cursing the high heavens with every breath he took. Peter was starting to lose hope the further they ran, nowhere for them to go except straight forward, and the Foniassaurus was nowhere near giving up on its hunt. The younger man was about to pull Wade to hide behind a tree and hope for the best until luck would have it, just metres in front of them was a dense, hollow tree tilted on its side. Without a second thought Peter took a hold of Wade’s hand and led him right to it.

He had no idea how far behind the dinosaur was, but he didn’t take any chances and as he got to the tree Wade practically threw him inside. Peter landed painfully on his side inside the gigantic tree trunk, Wade falling not so gracefully beside him seconds later.

“Fuck!” Wade screeched as the Foniassaurus let out an unhappy growl. “What do we do? What do we do? We’re gonna be dinosaur chow!”

“I’m calling Tony!” Peter breathed out, digging in his trouser pocket to get his phone.

“What’s Stark going to do over the phone, Petey? Send you a new iPad to clout the thing over the head?”

“Shut up Wade!” Peter barked, his hand shaking as he virtually stabbed the buttons on the device. If he was being honest with himself, he really didn’t know what Tony could do at that moment, but looking around he didn’t really have any other choice than to try something.

As the phone began ringing, the Foniassaurus took that time to interrupt. With its powerful jaws the dinosaur bit down on the bark, its teeth piercing through right above the couple’s heads. The two cried out of fear as the dinosaur shook its head back and forth, moving the trunk along with it, making Peter and Wade wobble around on the inside.

“We’re going to die, we’re going to die, holy fuck my gravestone is going to say eaten by a dinosaur!” Wade shrieked.

If they were in any other situation Peter would have rolled his eyes, but instead he used his free hand to grab onto his boyfriends, squeezing it tight as they rocked back and forth. Peter shut his eyes as the ringing on his phone went on, before there was a click and suddenly Tony’s voice was shouting at him on the other end.

“ _Peter? Where are you?”_

“TONY!” Peter just about screamed down the receiver. “HELP! WE NEED HELP! WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO! TONY WHAT DO WE DO? THERE’S A FUCKING DINOSAUR-,”

Peter was rudely interrupted as the Foniassaurus decided in that moment to have another try in breaking the trunk. The creature swung its long jaw down onto the bark for a second time, only it didn’t just sink its teeth in as it had seconds before, instead the full force of its bite broke through the tree and sent bits and pieces of the trunk flying everywhere. The couple wailed out in horror, Wade jumping on top of Peter to protect him.

The Foniassaurus roared at the top of its voice, as if crying out in victory. Peter, in his terror, let the phone slip from his hand, the device forgotten as the dinosaur prepared itself for another chew on the tree.

“We have to get out of here!” Peter said, eyes widening in fear as the dinosaur took another big chunk of bark off the log. “Fuck, he’s getting closer!”

“Where are we supposed to go?!” Wade yelped as they were shook back and forth again. “There’s nowhere to run!”

“If we don’t get out of here, Wade, there’s more of a chance of us getting eaten! We’re trapped!”

Wade looked down at the younger man and thought for a second. Then he frowned. “See, this is why you’re the smart one.”

Peter really did roll his eyes this time. “When it bites down on the tree again, we make a run for it, okay?”

“WHAT?” Wade let out in surprise.

“It’ll be distracted, Wade!” Peter growled in frustration as the dinosaur ripped away some more of the sapling. “You ready?”

Wade nodded speedily, rolling to the side off of the smaller man, as they both lay on their stomachs before lifting themselves onto their knees. The two looked behind them as the dinosaur stomped its foot, getting ready to dive in for another round of tree chomping.

“Okay,” Peter said as calmly as he could. “In three, two…”

The Foniassaurus dove in once again, ripping the bark apart.

“One!” Peter let out, as the two took off running.

They ran like the wind through the dark trees, the ground feeling light under their feet as the fear of getting caught gripped them. The further they ran the more they felt relieved that they were nearly out of the dinosaur’s vision, nearly in the clear. But the Foniassaurus soon realised that her prey wasn’t where she wanted them.

Opening its mouth wide, the Foniassaurus let out an ear-splitting cry, before picking up its feet and beginning the chase.

“Shit!” Peter shrieked as he realised they hadn’t outsmarted the creature after all, as he heard its heavy footsteps getting closer and closer behind them.

“You think we can hide up a tree like a couple of squirrels?” Wade shouted.

“Not the time, Wade!”

“Peter!”

“Not the time!” Peter yelled as he took a glimpse behind them, wishing he hadn’t as the dinosaur was so close he could smell the stench of its breath.

“Peter, we’re going for a swim!”

Peter didn’t have time to ask what Wade was talking about, as the next thing he knew the older man was taking his hand in his and urging him to run faster. As he looked ahead he saw the reason why, and his stomach dropped at the thought of what lay right in front of them. Straight up ahead there was an opening through the trees, light just about shining through, but what made it that tad bit scary was the fact that it was the end of a cliff and they could just about see the waterfall on the other side of it.

“What if it’s too far down?” Peter yelled as they grew closer.

“I’d rather dive bomb into a pond than be dinosaur chow!” Was Wade’s simple answer.

Peter couldn’t argue with that. And before he knew it they were mere inches away from jumping off of the rock face. They had seconds before they could decide whether to chicken out and stop, but when the Foniassaurus let another roar tear out of its throat they didn’t have to decide anything. Peter and Wade squeezed each other’s hands tight, and with a giant leap they fell from the cliff top, the Foniassaurus skidding to a halt as it tried in a last attempt to reach out with its jaws to catch them.

The couple felt the sting of the cold water as they hit it with a loud splash, their bodies dropping deep into the river. Peter felt his eyes tingle as he opened them, seeing Wade waving his arms wildly beside him as he began to swim upwards. Peter quickly grabbed him by his ankle, yanking him down to his level. Wade’s eyes widened as he began gesturing this way and that with his hands, Peter clutching his shirt and pointing to the surface, trying to tell him that they had to wait. Wade peered up and saw why. The Foniassaurus was still there, peeking over the cliff into the water, as if waiting for them to come back up so that it could snatch them.

Luckily for them, the dinosaur didn’t take long before it gave up, and its head disappeared from their view. Feeling their chests tighten, Peter and Wade urgently swam to the top, breaking the surface with gasping breaths.

“Jesus fucking Christmas!” Wade wheezed, as Peter grabbed him and pushed him towards the embankment.

“Come on!” he said, gasping for breath.

They swam to the edge of the river, clutching at the mucky ridge and dragging themselves up weakly. Peter was the one to collapse into the mud first, not giving a damn that he practically face planted into the dirt, his chest hurting too much to care about anything at the moment.

“Well,” Wade breathed out, coming to lay beside his boyfriend, and tangling his fingers through his hair. “That’ll teach us to jump out of a moving vehicle, huh?”

Peter groaned. “I hate you.”

Wade grinned.

*****  
“Tony!”

Tony wasn’t listening, his mind was tuned into one thing, and that was getting the hell out there to find his nephew. As soon as he’d heard Peter’s cries for help over the phone, he knew he had to do something. Peter and Wade had no idea what was happening, they were out there, God knows how, on their own, with the most dangerous dinosaur in the park on their tail. He couldn’t stand around and wait for the Foniassaurus to kill again.

Tony was out of the building before anyone could stop him, heading straight for his jeep. Steve had followed him the whole way, Bruce right behind him.

“Tony!” Steve called again. “Tony, stop!”

“No!” Tony shouted back, opening his car door.

Steve caught him by the arm before he could get in, holding him in place. “Tony, think about this first, please!” Steve practically begged. “You can’t just go out there and look for them, you need weapons, a plan, she’s dangerous!”

“Steve’s right, Tony.” Bruce added. “You’re not thinking straight.”

“My nephew is out there,” Tony said, feeling sick at the sheer thought. “That _thing_ is after him, I… God, I don’t even know if Peter’s still alive!”

Steve sighed, his heart breaking for the older man. He knew Tony never showed how much he cared for his family, but he knew he loved them more than anything in the world. “He’s alive, Tony. He’s a smart kid, he’ll get them out of trouble.” Steve said confidently, resting a hand on his cheek gently. “Tony, we need to go get weapons, find out where exactly Peter is and go from there. I’ll come with you, I’m not letting you do this alone.”

“Steve.”

“Don’t Steve me.” Steve smiled as he removed his hand, making Tony smile in return. “We’ll do this together, okay?”

Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. He shared a look with Bruce who gave him a nod, obviously agreeing with everything Steve had just said.

“Okay.” Tony said, stepping away from the door and slamming it shut. “Okay. Let’s go get ready.”

“What’s your orders?” Bruce asked as they walked back inside.

“You’re in charge,” Tony began, waving a hand as Bruce was about to protest. “I’ve put you in charge before Bruce, you do a good job.” he said, as they entered the armoury, Steve going straight to the rifles they’d need. “Get Thor to keep track of the employees and the guests, make sure every single one of them are safely on Main Street and send them straight onto the boats when they arrive. Get Carol and her crew to keep an eye on the Foniassaurus, call us if it’s too close for comfort. And…” Tony sighed, feeling the stress build. “If you can find Peter on there that would a damn good help, send me his location.”

Bruce nodded, suddenly feeling a bit overwhelmed at the responsibility of it all. “I’ll get it sorted.” he mumbled, sending them a short farewell before practically sprinting for the door.

Tony nodded, slinging a gun over his shoulder that Steve handed him. “Okay, okay, we’re good… everything’s good. Good.”

“Tony,” Steve said, slipping the last of the bullets into his pocket. “Everything will be fine. We’ll get Peter back, we’ll get everyone off this island, and kill the Foniassaurus. Don’t worry.”

Tony sighed heavily, wishing he was back in New York sleeping in his bed. “Yeah,” he said to Steve. “Yeah, we’ll be fine. I’m glad you’re here Steve.”

Steve simply smiled, resting a hand on the older man’s arm comfortingly. “Let’s go.”

They didn’t waste another second. The two clutched onto their riffles and made their way outside, both feeling anxious and afraid for what they were about to do. They hoped and prayed they’d be alone out there.


	7. The Jungle Adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry for the long updates guys! I am trying to finish this fic, but I've got so much on and so many fics on the go it's getting hard to find the time to write it! Thanks for being patient and I know I'm not a great writer haha so thanks for your lovely comments you've been posting! <3

“Where are we?”

“Erm... in a jungle, on an Island, somewhere in Puerto Rico? Or was it Cuba? Or Liberty Island?”

Peter looked behind him to frown over at his boyfriend, who was trudging through the damp, slimy dirt like it was the most difficult task he’d ever taken on. “Having fun?” Peter smirked, just as Wade stepped in a deep, muddy puddle.

“Oh yeah,” Wade sing-songed, lifting his foot up to reveal his wet, dirty socked foot. “Especially when my shoe decides to drown in the mud!”

Peter grinned, moseying over to help him dig out his shoe. “At least there’s no dinosaur on our trail.”

“WHERE?” Wade yelled, standing straight in a split second to look around with wide eyes. He was not taking on another damn dinosaur.

“Wade,” Peter sighed, tugging out the shoe and tossing it at the other man. Wade caught it with an oomph, mud splattering everywhere. “I said there is no dinosaur you idiot.”

“Phew.” Wade sighed, shaking his shoe to get rid of the clumps of dirt sticking to it. “That’s alright then.” He said as he began hoping on one leg, trying to put his trainer back on.

Peter watched in amusement as he skipped about, failing perfectly. “At least I’m not bored.” He mumbled to himself.

At least five minutes later Wade whooped in victory at finally being able to put on his shoe. Peter by this point had almost fallen into a deep sleep against a tree, but was rudely interrupted as Wade yanked him off the floor and got them on their way again.

They’d been strolling through the woodland now for what felt like hours, and they had no idea where they were going. It just felt like they were going in one straight line which led to nowhere, and there wasn’t any sign of civilization, not even any dinosaurs were roaming around the area. Which, really, Wade was more than happy about. But being absolutely stinking from their roll around in the mud earlier, and freezing cold after their dip in the pond, they felt miserable and tired, wanting to get back to their comfy beds in the hotel as soon as possible.

“Hey,” Peter stopped all of a sudden, Wade almost walking right into him. “Wade, do you see that?” he asked, pointing down the road, through the tall trees.

“All I see is trees, dirt and some kind of weird looking rock.” Wade said. “That is one weird rock.”

Peter squinted, wishing he had some binoculars. “I think it’s a building.”

“A rock building?”

“Wade, come on.” Peter said as he started sprinting, dodging the branches and plants that were scattered in his way. “It’s a building!”

Wade wasn’t going to argue with that. They were more than relieved when they reached the strange rock, which turned out to be a huge one storey building, decorated in plants, vines and anything the jungle could wrap around it. It didn’t take long to find the giant, wooden door at the front, which thankfully had no locks to stop them from getting in.

“What is this place?” Wade asked, giving the door a knock. “Anyone home?” he called in a high pitched voice.

Peter snorted, grabbing the big handle and pushing the door as hard as he could muster. With one shove it gave way and Peter opened it wide enough so that they could both fit through. The younger of the two made his way inside first, closely followed by Wade, who clung to Peter’s arm like his life depended on it.

“Nothing’s going to jump out and eat us, right?” Wade whispered, as if someone were listening in on them. “What if this is the big, creepy dinosaur’s layout and he’s here waiting for us?” he said, looking around frantically.

“I have a feeling it’s not.” Peter said, more captivated by the room they’d just walked in. “Wade, I think this must be the old building.”

“Old building?”

Peter nodded, taking small steps into the room and staring in awe. They were in a high ceilinged hall that reached up into a glass rooftop, one door to their left another to their right as one enormous, timber door stood to their front, all covered in dirt and dust. What caught their eye the most was the life-size skeleton of a T-Rex that practically took up most of the room, taking its stance in the middle. Every wall was decorated with old, decaying dinosaur patterned wallpaper, whilst posters and flyers of the creatures lay strewn on the ground underneath growing weeds and grass.

“This is the first information centre my grandfather built on the island.” Peter said, picking up a poster of a velociraptor. “Only stayed open for a year before he built the new one. Think it was because he wanted to build one closer to the water.”

“Huh.” Wade hummed, standing beside the T-Rex and looking up in astonishment. “Do you think he skinned this bad boy just for its bones to be displayed in here?”

Peter let the poster fall to look stupidly at the other man. “Yes, my grandfather was a great dinosaur hunter. Didn’t I tell you that?”

Wade shook his head, poking at the dinosaur’s leg. “Don’t think you mentioned it.”

Peter smiled to himself, stepping over the thick vines sprawled across the marble floor, making his way over to one of the doors on the right. It was different to the other doors, made from metal and a bit smaller, with a square sign stuck in the middle. Peter couldn’t read it from the thick layer of dirt plastered across it, so with his sleeve he began to wipe the filth away, revealing blocked letters.

“Do not enter, staff only.” Wade read as he strolled up to his boyfriend. “Sounds like an invitation, let’s go inside.”

“What if it’s dangerous?” Peter said, thinking about all the different things that could be behind the door. “Could be the electrics room or something.”

“Or…” Wade thought to himself, slipping around Peter to grip the handle of the door. “It could be filled with cotton candy and beef burgers.”

Peter looked at him like he was an idiot. Which, really, he wasn’t wrong.

“Fine,” Peter said with a shrug of the shoulders. “But you get to go first and be my shield.”

“Oh, Peter,” Wade fluttered his eyelashes. “You’re such a romantic.” He grinned before pushing down the handle and swinging the door open.

They weren’t exactly sure what to expect on the other side of the door, and what they got was pretty anticlimactic. It was just a long, dirty, dark hall with one door to the left and one to the right, with an emergency exit door at the end. Wade groaned, as if disappointed that he didn’t find a room full of skittles and marshmallows.

“Let’s try the doors.” Peter said as they went in. “Maybe we’ll find a map or something, find out where we are.”

“We’re at a theme park.” Wade said happily, as he chose the door to the left to try.

“No, really?” Peter snorted, as he went for the one on the right.

“Knock, knock.” Wade beat his knuckles against the metal, before flinging it open.

Inside was another disappointment, and Wade pouted. The room had a large, round table sitting in the middle, surrounded by rotting chairs, and stacks of more wooden seats down one side of the wall.

“What a waste of perfectly good butt warmers.”

“Wade.” Peter’s voice called from behind him.

Wade stepped out of the room he was in and skipped into the one Peter stood in, and as soon as he entered he grinned from ear to ear at what he saw.

“Jackpot.”

Peter smiled in relief as he walked over to the two jeeps that were parked inside the room, which had obviously been a garage at some point. The vehicles were almost identical to the ones they’d been travelling in on the ride earlier, minus the roof and the bright, ridiculous dinosaurs painted on the side. Peter didn’t waste any time in checking one out, finding the lock on the bonnet and popping it open.

“Think we might have found our ticket back.” Peter mumbled as he leaned over to check the mechanics inside. “Wade, can you find a key?”

“Have you seen these cool goggle thingies?” Wade shrieked in excitement from the other side of the room, next to a stack of shelves covered in old devices Peter was pretty sure he shouldn’t be touching. He then noticed Wade was wearing one on his head. “Everything’s green!”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Wade, they’re night vision goggles.” He said impatiently. “Now get them off and find me a key for the jeep!”

“Oh, you mean these?” Wade smiled toothily, waving a set of keys in his hand.

Peter wanted to throw something at his head, but instead refrained from doing so as Wade sauntered over and got into the driver’s side of the car. “Start her up.”

“What if it’s a him?” Wade asked as he stuck his head over the top of the jeep.

“Just start the damn car, Wilson!”

“Oh, last name, I’m in trouble.” Wade chuckled to himself before sticking a key into the ignition, and twisting.

The jeep juddered and rattled noisily before stopping after a few seconds, Wade trying again and again to get it started, but unluckily the vehicle refused to come to life. Peter sighed, staring down at the engine and all the bits and bobs that held inside the front. He thought back to the time when he was younger, an infrequent time when Tony had babysat him for an entire day, his aunt May desperate as she had to go to a wedding somewhere in New Jersey. Tony had spent hours fixing his own car, hauling Peter along to show him how it was done, how everything worked and where everything went. Plus he was a good help passing the tools.

Peter had never really needed the skills Tony had taught him before, only once when Wade’s car had broken down on the side of the road, and that was only because of the radiator overheating. He remembered most of what he’d learnt, so he pulled off his hoodie, threw it to the side and asked Wade to find him a box of tools. First things first, he needed to find the problem.

 

*****  
  
Tony’s car sped along the dirt road under the tall, swaying trees that stretched over like a hand grasping at the air. The wheels skidded against the mud, covering the vehicle in splodges of filth and grime, something Tony would be appalled at if he weren’t on his way to save his nephew and nephew’s other half from being eaten alive by a vicious dinosaur.

“Tony, I think you need to slow down.”

“I can’t, Peter could be in serious danger right about now!”

Steve ran a hand through his unruly hair, grabbing onto the door as they ran through a pothole. “You don’t know that, Thor just told us they found two people making their way through the woods.”

Tony sighed, easing up on the gas. “He also said the dinosaur disappeared off the radar!”

“It can do that remember,” Steve said calmly, trying his best to keep Tony from completely losing it. “At least we know Peter and Wade are okay, we’ll go to where they were last seen and we’ll bring them back. Okay?”

As Steve said this he reached out a hand, guardedly placing his hand on the other man’s hand that was anxiously tapping away on his thigh. Tony jumped a little at the sudden touch, taking a quick glance at Steve who smiled softly back, before he turned his hand around to entwine their fingers. Steve didn’t pull his hand away, and Tony was glad for it, because having his hand in his again just felt right and made him feel at ease within seconds.

“Thanks, Steve.”

“You know I’ll always be here for you, Tony.” Steve said quietly, eyes turning back to the road, hand giving Tony’s a quick squeeze. “You’re not in this alone.”

Tony was about to reply, but was swiftly cut off by Steve suddenly bolting upright in his seat, yanking his hand away from Tony’s to grip at the dashboard.

“What?” Tony asked, worry washing over him again.

“Stop the car.”

“Why?” Tony looked out to see if he could see what Steve was staring at as he slowed the vehicle, apparently it was something straight up ahead and out in the fields. “What’s wrong?”

“The Brachiosaurus.” Was all Steve said before he was practically diving out of the passenger’s seat and running out into the field.

“Jesus Christ!” Tony stomped on the break quickly before he unbuckled his belt, rushing out of the car himself. He knew Steve was a bit of a daredevil, but he wasn’t expecting him to leap out of a moving vehicle for crying out loud! “Steve!”

Tony ran after the blonde who was way ahead of him, and who suddenly got down on his knees in the grass. Tony could see why. Laying right next to Steve on the ground was a gigantic, long necked dinosaur, its chest stirring sluggishly up and down with each short breath it took. As the engineer got closer he could see why the creature was lying on its side instead of on its feet, along its ribs a bit chunk of its skin and muscle had been torn out, the gruesome wound bleeding nonstop.

“Steve?” Tony kneeled next to the younger man, who was stroking a hand gently along the Brachiosaur’s head. “What the hell happened?”

Steve shook his head, feeling his heart break at the sight of the dying animal. “It must have been the Foniassaurus.” He said. “There’s no other meat eaters around here, Tony. She’s just left this poor thing for dead.”

Tony felt himself instinctively reaching out to touch the dinosaur, just as Steve was doing, and run a hand along its smooth skin. He rubbed his fingers down its neck as carefully as he could, wishing he could do something, anything to make the pain go away for the poor creature.

“I’m sorry.” Tony whispered, feeling guilty once again for all that was happening. “I’m so sorry.”

“Tony,” Steve began, just as the dinosaur took one last deep breath, and closed its eyes. “It’s not your fault.”

Tony just sighed, watching as the animal went still. “Sure.” Was all he said, and Steve left it at that, knowing Tony would only argue back if he continued. “Let’s just… get out of here.”

Steve nodded, giving the dinosaur one last pat before he stood, following Tony back to the car. But he didn’t get far before he bumped right into the other man who was stock still in the middle of the field, staring out at the distance. Steve followed his gaze, and his heart skipped a beat.

“No.” he breathed out, his hands balling into fists in anger at what they saw. Metres ahead was a pitch of green grass with not just one other Brachiosaurus, but at least five or six of them lying there dead, big, red lacerations on parts of their bodies. “She did this.” Steve snarled. “She just killed them all, killed them for nothing.”

“She didn’t want them for food?”

“No.” Steve said certainly. “Look at their wounds, Tony. They haven’t had parts of them torn out like the other one, they’re just… just bite marks and claw marks.”

“My god.” Tony hurriedly took out his phone and dialled Thor’s number. “We need to get everyone off this damned island.”

*****  


After Tony’s alarmed phone call to Thor, demanding they get a move on with the evacuation, they’d hurriedly gotten back in the car, not wasting anymore time in finding Peter and Wade. Tony was even more anxious now that he’d learnt the boats wouldn’t be at the park for at least another hour, not to mention Thor had told him they couldn’t find his nephew anywhere in the park on the infrared, which meant they were somewhere in the old section of the jungle where the cameras hadn’t been set up. But at least now they had an incline of where to look.

So that’s where Tony drove them. Steve and he sped through an open gate into one of the main fields of the park, sporting one of the island’s best rides, where guests could drive around amongst the dinosaurs and watch them through the safety of the vehicles. Thankfully all the jeeps were back at the starting point, none of them out in the open, which meant the employees had done their job and gotten all the guests out of there. But all wasn’t in one-piece, as Tony drove down the grassy field and noticed something off.

The mechanic brought the car to a stop, and looked to his left. “Shit.”

“What’s the matter?” Steve asked beside him, leaning over to see what the other man was so worried about. “Is that…”

“Yeah.” Tony cut in, his eyes on the slightly large gap in the fence. “That’s the emergency exit we saw on the infrared earlier.”

“This is where we saw Peter and Wade?”

“Yeah, this must have been it. There’s no other emergency gates open.”

“Okay,” Steve said calmly, reaching down to retrieve his gun. “I’ll go take a look.”

“Wait, what?” Tony didn’t have time to stop him before Steve was out the door again, it was starting to become a habit of his. “Steve, be careful!” Tony called as he grabbed his own gun and got out of the car. “I swear you have a death wish!”

“Sometimes.” Steve said as he approached the gap, Tony catching up with him. “What’s the fun in not taking a little risk?” he said sending a smirk Tony’s way.

Tony laughed, eyes widening as Steve stepped through to the other side of the wall, into the not so inviting dark woods. He didn’t really have a choice but to follow. “You’re starting to sound like me.”

Steve grinned, the two going silent as they crept along the soggy ground. Minutes later, Steve suddenly stopped and frowned. “Tony,” he said quietly, raising his riffle. The damp, dark, silent of the forest was unnerving, sending shivers down his spine. “I’m pretty sure this is where we saw them on the map, it’s near where Thor said he saw them too.”

“How do you know?” Tony whispered, feeling his own flesh shiver at the spooky atmosphere. “But that could be further down, we didn’t exactly pay much attention because I may have panicked a little.”

Steve didn’t have to say anything, as he reached out a hand and pointed down at the muddy ground. Tony gazed at the spot where he was pointing, and he felt his blood run cold. Laying in the mud was a torn up, enormous tree trunk, bits and pieces of the wood strewn all around the path, and right alongside it was a phone. Tony bent down to retrieve it, and knew immediately that it belonged to his nephew.

“He was here.”

“Yeah,” Steve kneeled beside what was left of the trunk, running a hand alongside it, noticing the large holes across it which were evidently bite marks. “They were lucky.”

“Lucky?” Tony snorted, pocketing the phone. “They could have been dinosaur brunch.”

“But they weren’t.” Steve said, his gaze running along the mud, and as soon as he found what he was looking for he stood, yanking on Tony’s sleeve. “This way.”

“What?” Tony asked in confusion as he was pulled along. “Where are you going, Steve? We have to find them!”

“We are.” Steve answered calmly. “Look on the ground, Tony.”

So the engineer did.  It didn’t take long to realise what Steve was referring to, as etched in the muddy pathway were two sets of footprints, running for yards ahead of them and leading deeper into the forest.

“Keep your eyes peeled, try not to make a sound.” Steve began, as they didn’t waste another second and started to follow the trail. “Keep your rifle up.”

Tony didn’t need to be reminded, and raised his gun, finger on the trigger and ready to fire.

 

 

“It works!”

Peter punched the air in victory, dancing around like an idiot as the engine of the jeep juddered and rumbled to life. It took him longer than expected to figure out exactly what was wrong with the vehicle, but eventually he’d stuck some wires in the right places, filled it up with oil, gave it a little kick and it had woken up with a jump.

“Wade!” Peter shouted back at his boyfriend, who’d, not so surprisingly, wondered off ages ago. “Wade, get in here! I did it! Let’s get a move on!”

Like a mole popping out of its hole, Wade appeared out of nowhere behind the jeep, a big, cheerful grin on his face. “Look what I found!” he crooned, holding up what appeared to be an aged, yellowing map.

Peter didn’t say it out loud, but damn, he was impressed. “Well done.” Was all he could say, as Wade chirpily swung the map around in his hand as he got into the driver’s side of the jeep.

“Uh, Wade?”

“Yes, dear?”

“You’re _not_ driving.”

*****  
  
“Tony, don’t start panicking.”

“I’m not panicking!”

Tony was undeniably panicking.

After trailing the footprints through the mud for what felt like hours, Tony and Steve had come to a dead end, which was in fact the end of a cliff that dropped down into a rather enormous, deep pool where a loud waterfall poured down into it. Peter and Wade’s footsteps had stopped there, just a jumble of them imprinted in the ground as if they’d been dancing around on the spot. What made it worse, was the giant footprint of the Foniassaurus right beside them.

“There’s no blood, so that’s a good sign, right?”  Tony’s voice grew higher and higher with each word. “No blood, that’s good.”

“That’s good, Tony.” Steve said, carefully looking over the cliff. “I think they jumped.”

“Jumped?” Tony sighed, running his free hand through his unruly hair. “Who in their right mind would jump down there?”

Steve gave Tony a look of disbelief. “If you were about to be eaten by a dinosaur and had no other way out, wouldn’t you?”

Tony frowned. “Touché.” he mumbled, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. “So, if they jumped, where the hell would they go to down there? That’s the old part of the island. It’s literally split in half by this damn river.”

“Peter’s smart, he would lead them back up West,” Steve went on, trying to think back to when he was showed a map of the old park. “I think there’s a couple of buildings still standing around there, on the way to the new park. It’s a long walk but they could have found a place along the way, or we might be able to catch them on their way back.”

“How exactly do _we_ get down there?”

Steve turned to Tony and smiled innocently. He shouldn’t have asked.

*****

“This isn’t exactly how I pictured my day.” Tony mumbled, as he trotted along the forest grounds, sopping shoes squelching with each step he took. “Remind me never to take you camping.”

Steve chuckled to himself, leading the way in front. “It was only a quick dip.”

“Quick dip?” Tony snorted. “More like a dive.”

Tony really hadn’t liked the idea of jumping over an extremely tall cliff into the not so enticing looking pond, but after a bit of coaching from Steve, and knowing it would be a heck of a lot quicker that way, Tony had taken the plunge. Literally. Steve had leapt off the cliff first, throwing his riffle and phone over the side and onto the ground below just before his feet hit the water. He’d come up for air seconds later, floating around and yelling up at Tony to come down. Safe to say, the engineer would not be flying off any cliffs anytime soon, or ever again for that matter.

“Where do you think they’ve gone?” Tony asked, as he wrung out more water from his shirt.

“Their footprints stopped not long back,” Steve said, checking his phone signal again, which was still not working. “Maybe we should have brought the radio to get a hold of Thor.”

“It’s fine,” Tony began. “We’ll find them, I’m sure Thor’s still busy trying to get over twenty thousand people into one place.” he sighed, hoping beyond hope that the plan was going well.

Steve nodded, sticking his phone back into his pocket. He led them a little further through the tall, old trees, across some small, trickling rivers, and fallen logs, all the while Tony watched his ex as he moved with purpose, that determined look in his eyes. Tony couldn’t help but smile.

“You know,” he said, as they crossed another river. “This reminds me of the time we went to central park.”

Steve turned back and gave him a confused look. “I’m pretty sure we weren’t looking for your lost nephew and running from a dinosaur.”

“Nope,” Tony chuckled, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. “But you were looking for those pretzels, and were pretty adamant that we’d find them.”

Steve grinned. “Well, you were cranky, and I knew the only way to get you to cheer up was to have your favourite pretzels.”

“I do love those pretzels.” The two laughed, and Tony jogged to catch up with the blonde. “I enjoyed that day, you know.”

“Yeah, me too.” Steve smiled.

“Want to go again?”

Steve suddenly stopped, turning to the older man. “Tony.” he sighed.

“What?” he feigned innocence. “Just asking.”

“Are you seriously trying to ask me out, right now?”

“No…” He looked around, trying to think of what to say next. “Yes… maybe… bad timing?”

“Tony.” Steve looked at him liked he’d suddenly grown two heads. “Seriously?”

“What? I just… I don’t know…” Tony ran a hand through his messy hair. “I guess being with you… we haven’t spent this much time together since… since forever and I just… I’ve missed this I guess.”

Steve gazed at the ground, and back up. “Yeah, I’ve missed this too.”

Tony wasn’t expecting that. “You have?”

“Yeah.” Steve admitted, meeting the engineer’s gaze. “I’ve missed being with you.”

Tony couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face, and was about to let out exactly how much he’d missed Steve too, until a loud noise caught both their attention somewhere north. It sounded like an engine, a very old, raspy engine that belonged to some kind of jeep.

“Did you hear that?” Steve looked behind him and the sound grew louder before it faded.

“I heard it alright.”

“It’s got to be them.” Steve said, and before Tony could say another word, the dinosaur expert was already taking off at a sprint through the woods.

Tony hurriedly followed, trying his best to keep up. They could hear the engine more and more the further they ran in a straight path, it’s sputtering and droning echoing around them. It didn’t take long for the two to reach a building they both hadn’t seen in such a long time, the old information centre that had been the first on the island, its front door slightly ajar.

“They were here!” Tony declared as he noticed the door open.

As he said it, there came the sound of an engine again, which sounded like it was just around the corner. Steve and Tony shared a look of awareness, before the pair practically dashed around the building to where they had an incline of where the noise was coming from. As they rounded the corner to where the garage of the block stood, they could see that the metal door was fully open, but the jeep that should have been sitting inside was gone.

“Shit!” Tony cursed. “They’ve gone.”

“Come on!” Steve wasn’t giving up that easily, and noticing the tyre tracks on the ground he pushed Tony forward the same way. “Let’s go!”

Tony didn’t need to be told twice. The two ran as fast as they could through the trees, dodging bushes and twigs that got in their way, calling out Peter and Wade. They could just about hear the quiet rumbling of the jeep’s engine, meaning they were so close behind.

“PETER!” Tony bellowed as loud as he could. “PETER, STOP THE DAMN CAR!”

That must have done it, as the next thing they knew the sound of the vehicle didn’t sound like it was getting further away, but closer. Within seconds Tony and Steve came to an abrupt halt as a jeep sped down the path right in front of them, coming to a standstill beside them, Peter and Wade looking over at them in surprise.

“Uncle Tony?” Peter stared in wonderment.

“Peter!” Tony wanted to yell, hit something, collapse and sleep for a few days, but instead he chose to run over to the driver’s side of the car, and swing open the door. “Don’t you ever do this to me again!”

Before Peter could answer, he was encased in a big, crushing hug, finding it a little difficult to breath. Tony quickly pulled away, checking over Peter to make sure he hadn’t been bitten by anything dinosaur like, or cut up by anything woodland like.

“Are you okay?” he began babbling. “What happened? How long have you been here? I don’t even want to know how you’re here, you’re here and that’s all that matters! You’ve lessened my life by at least ten years, Peter!”

Peter chuckled. “We’re fine, we just got a little… lost earlier.” He said, trying to avoid the subject of jumping out of moving rides. “Hi, Steve!”

“Hey, Peter.” Steve smiled back at the cheerful teenager. “Good to see you in one piece.”

Peter grinned. “Good to see you too! This is Wade by the way.” He said, pointing to his boyfriend who was currently trying to hide from Tony’s glare. “Wade, this is Steve.”

“Oh,” Wade giggled excitedly. “Your uncle’s ex who finished with him because your uncle was a bad boyfriend?”

Peter elbowed Wade so hard in the ribs he’d feel it for weeks. The teenager grinned innocently at his uncle, who didn’t look impressed.

“So, uh, want a ride?” Peter tried to change the subject. “Fifty bucks.”

Tony gave him a punch on the arm before throwing his riffle in the back seat. “You ain’t driving, you’re shit. Move to the back.”

“What?!” Peter squawked. “That’s not fair!”

“Shut it, we’re the adults, you’re the kid. We know the way. Move it!”

“We got a map!”

“So what?”

“But Tony!”

“Don’t ‘but Tony’ me!”

Wade leaned over the side of the car to address Steve, who was watching the two family members in amusement. “So, Steve-o, how’d you get such shiny hair?”

BANG!

Everyone froze. From somewhere nearby a tree fell to the ground, followed by branches snapping, leaves rustling. There soon came a resounding bang once more, one after the other, trembling the ground underneath their feet like an earthquake. They didn’t need to see what it was, they knew exactly what it was, and they weren’t going to wait around to find out.

“In the damn car, now!” Tony shouted in panic.

Peter dove out of the front seat so Tony could take over, the teenager being pulled into the back seat by Steve who’d already climbed inside. The four were safely in the jeep before another thunderous thud made the vehicle jolt tremendously.

“Seatbelts on!” Tony said, starting up the engine.

But before he could do anything else, the trees meters before them parted, and out stepped the Foniassaurus, its gigantic heat peeking through. The four passengers started at it in horror, as it let out an ear-piercing roar that blew the trees and branches from side to side.

“Tony! Step on it!” Steve hollered from the back seat. “NOW!”

That’s precisely what the engineer did. Slamming his foot down on the gas, Tony swung the wheel to the right and had the jeep skidding through the mud, bits of dirt and dust flying into the air. Peter and Wade screamed as the car almost fell to its side from the sheer force.

“Hold on!” Tony warned, as he changed gear to the highest it would go.

As the jeep sped off down the clear pathway, at an alarming speed, Peter and Steve took a look behind them. The Foniassaurus was following, practically running after its prey, its enormous feet stomping aggressively on the ground, as it snapped its hungry jaws at them.

Peter’s eyes widened. “We are so dead.”


End file.
